Mother wins £6,250 payout for being barred from school during pregnancy

A mother accepted more than £6,000 compensation yesterday from the convent school that banned her from lessons when she became pregnant.

Margaret McCluskey, now in her final year at Cambridge University, was awarded the money for her school's sexual discrimination.

As a 17-year-old trying to come to terms with her pregnancy, she was barred from school premises just before she was due to sit her GCSEs.

She was forced to take the exams elsewhere, but was allowed back to the school in Northern Ireland to study for her A-Levels after the baby had been born. The Convent Grammar School at Mount Lourdes in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, admitted liability and agreed to pay her £6,250 in an out-of-court settlement after she sued in a county court. School governors also agreed to review their pastoral care policy.

The school refused to comment on the case but Ms McCluskey, now 21, and said: "I have got justice for what happened to me. I am very relieved it is all over and I can put the whole thing behind me."

She said the school had made her feel like a "second class citizen" when she was already feeling vulnerable and facing the "daunting situation" of teenage motherhood.

Ms McCluskey, who has a four-year-old daughter called Judina, said her suspension was more to do with appearances than the Catholic ethos of the school, which she was told she had breached.