School's out for mothers

Should pregnant schoolgirls stay in mainstream education for their GCSEs or leave and take exams elsewhere? Opinion is divided. Clare Rudebeck visits a flagship centre where teen mums continue their studies with their babies. Is this a model for the UK?

When Margaret McCluskey was suspended from her convent school in Ireland at the age of 17 for being pregnant, she was shocked. Her case, which hit the headlines last month, is an extreme example, but most teenage mothers do find that they have to leave school. Ms McCluskey was forced to take her GCSEs elsewhere.

In Britain and Ireland, getting pregnant is still a oneway ticket out of school. Most schoolgirl mothers finish their education either at a special unit or at home – cut off from their friends, and the national curriculum. Fortunately, Ms McCluskey's story had a happy ending. She went on to Cambridge University, where she is now in her final year of studying for a degree in land economy. Last month, her school paid her more than £6,000 damages for sex discrimination.

But what is the right way to handle teenage girls who become pregnant while still at school? Should they be allowed to stay with their classmates, have the baby, and return to their studies where they left off, as the McCluskey case suggests, or is it better to remove them from their old life?

A new EU-funded study by Dr Nona Dawson, of Bristol University, comes to the controversial conclusion that pregnant teenage girls should be kept out of the mainstream because going back to school can ruin both the mother's and her child's future. The reality is that pregnant girls can expect to be bullied by their classmates and given the cold shoulder by their teachers, she says. In addition, they have difficulty finding suitable childcare.

"One girl was determined to go back," says Dr Dawson. "She only lasted a short time. Not because of the school, but because of bullying from the boys in her peer group. Her education was left in tatters. What these girls need to concentrate on is motherhood. Generally, the children of teenage parents fare worse than the children of older parents. How can you be a good parent if you have to go to school?"

Dr Dawson, who has 15 years' experience in researching the education of teenage mothers, thinks that teenage mothers should be parents first and students second. Mainstream education is too hostile for most of them, she believes. And she is not alone. Her study, Education and Employment Opportunities for Young Mothers in the UK, to be published shortly, surveyed more than 100 education authorities across Britain. The majority believe that it is a bad idea to send teenage mothers back to their previous schools. So, although schools may no longer be able to exclude teenage mums without risking legal action, the young mothers will often be nudged towards the exit. The school may say it can no longer take responsibility for their health and safety.

For these reasons, Dr Dawson believes that young mothers are much better off in separate units, which cater specifically for their needs. "The best units allow them to be in a smaller setting and be recognised as a mother and a young woman, not just a pupil," she says. This solution makes sense because many girls who become mothers dislike school and have a history of truancy. "It's not that they've deliberately become pregnant," she says. "Often, they've been drunk. But normally, young mothers are pretty disengaged from education before they become pregnant."

This link was noted in Ofsted's 2002 report on sex and relationship education in schools, and in the Social Exclusion Unit's report on teenage pregnancy in 1999. Moving to a separate unit gives girls the chance to start again. Girls interviewed at the Meriton unit in Bristol bear this out. Emma Worgan, now 17, who arrived when she was six months pregnant, and whose son, Lewis, is now two years old, says that she hated school. "The teachers had no respect for you. I was hardly ever there. I used to go round to my friend's house instead."

Attending the Meriton has transformed her attitude to education. She attends classes regularly and does well academically. Her favourite subject is childcare GCSE, she says. "It's really interesting finding out how a baby's brain develops."

But the Meriton is nothing like a mainstream school because it is cosy and has only six teachers. Two years ago, it was completely renovated and now offers schooling for 50 schoolgirl mothers aged 13 to 18. In addition, it has 20 places for the children in a crèche. There is a computer room, four classrooms, and a rest room where the girls can take a nap after sleepless nights with their babies.

Most important, says Dr Dawson, the unit enables the girls to spend as much time as possible with their children, and to become better mothers. The babies and toddlers are in the crèche during lessons, but are let out for lunch. "It can get quite wild at lunchtime," says Carol Bowery, the head teacher. On the day of my visit, all is relative calm. The girls are feeding their offspring. Food trickles down the chin of one toddler and is scooped back in. Teachers munch on sandwiches in the same room.

What happens to the mothers' exams? Once they are outside a mainstream school, these girls lose their right to the full national curriculum. In other words, they don't have access to the full range of subjects. But Carol Bowery says that her unit is as strong on education as it is on motherhood. "If you look at the predicted grades of the girls and what they achieve, we definitely have added value," she says. "Most young women take three or four GCSEs, some take five. No one leaves with nothing." Emma Worgan took five GCSEs last year and is retaking three this year to improve her grades. "If I hadn't come here, I wouldn't have got any," she says.

The expectations may seem low. Many sixth-form colleges require students to have five GCSEs. Shouldn't some of the brighter girls take seven or eight GCSEs, like those in mainstream schools? That is unrealistic, says Dr Dawson. "Lack of access to the national curriculum is a problem for these young women, but you have to balance this against the fact that, if they hadn't gone to the special unit, they probably wouldn't have gone to school at all."

In Fife, Scotland, they do things differently. It is the only local authority in Britain where secondary schools have agreed to keep pregnant schoolgirls. The policy, which has been in existence for nine years, has been successful, according to Marriann Raymond, who co-ordinates the initiative. "It gives the girls a very clear message that they are still part of the system and they still matter," she says. Patsy Wright, a teenage mother from Fife, agrees. Her education could have been irrevocably damaged if she had left when she became pregnant. "I think I would have left education if I had left my school," she says. "For a mum of any age, pregnancy causes big changes – psychologically, physically, and for your family. I needed the support of my friends at school. And to keep focused on my educational goals, I needed the support of the teachers I knew. To be taken out of that environment would have been very difficult." Having stayed at school through her pregnancy, she gave birth to her daughter, Shannon, three days before her first Higher exam, the Scottish equivalent of an A-level. In all, she sat four Highers and got three Bs and a C.

The confidence the girls gain from staying on at school and getting their qualifications helps to make these girls better mothers, says Raymond. "I don't think you can assume that because a girl is young, she can't be a good mother," she says. "I think there's a very important link between your confidence as an individual and your ability to be a good mother. If a girl thinks that she has a positive future, that has a positive effect on her parenting."

Emma Worgan was 15 when she became pregnant. She often truanted from school and left when she was two and a half months pregnant. "The school said they couldn't be responsible for my health and safety, but I reckon I was about to be expelled anyway," she says. She is now at The Meriton, the young mums' unit in Bristol and has taken five GCSEs. "If I hadn't come here, I wouldn't have got any," she says. She had wanted to become a midwife. "But the birth put me off," she laughs. She now hopes to become a nurse.

Catherine Rush was eight months pregnant when she started her Highers, the Scottish equivalent of A-levels. She stayed at her mainstream school, attending part-time and got an A and two Bs in her exams. "I was supported by the teachers – they didn't treat me any differently," she says. Now 24, she went on to do a degree in special needs education and is now an education assistant at a special needs school. "School was my focus while I was pregnant," she says. "You need to get your education behind you. If I hadn't got my Highers, I wouldn't be doing what I am now."

education@independent.co.uk