Teen mums spurred on to exam success

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Charlotte Savage describes getting pregnant at 16 as the 'best thing that ever happened to her'. In less than a year, she went from a school drop-out to an ambitious teenager training to become a primary school teacher.
Charlotte is not alone. While most parents would be horrified at the thought of their school-age daughter getting pregnant, a new report says it can transform the lives of disillusioned teenagers, spurring them to return to the classroom and aim higher than ever before.

Raising Expectations, by the government's Basic Skills Agency, highlights the fact that pregnancy can be the ultimate wake-up call. 'Finding out you are pregnant at 14 is a complete eye-opener,' said Carol Taylor, executive director for national development at the agency. 'It is a wake-up call - I am responsible for a person and I have got to learn a whole new world about being an adult.'

Taylor said many girls who fell pregnant initially had low expectations, but quickly became highly aspirational. The report praises projects that help to fulfil their ambitions by offering classes on parenting and basic skills.

It was a course for young mums run under the auspices of YMCA Training that helped to turn Charlotte's life around. She hated school. Boring lessons and bullying meant she went in only once a week. In the end, she left before taking her GCSEs and fell pregnant a few months later.

'I was 16 when I got pregnant and it was a bit of a shock,' she said. 'My mum was upset.' She split up with her boyfriend when their daughter, Amelia, was one month old. But the pregnancy changed her attitude to life. 'Having a baby opened up my eyes; I realised I needed a decent job to bring her up.'

Charlotte went to classes that taught her how to be a good mum, as well as helping with traditional subjects. Her attendance was perfect and she quickly got qualifications equivalent to GCSE A to C in maths and English. She is about to go to college to start on her path to becoming a teacher: 'If I had never had a baby, I would be working in retail, but now I have found something I really want to do.'

Her story is typical of many a young woman's. While it is not only those from difficult backgrounds who become pregnant teenagers, many cases involve girls who struggle at school and play truant. That aversion to school disappears quickly after they get pregnant, according to the study.

Nona Dawson, a research fellow at Bristol University and expert on teenage pregnancy, made a study of 10 local authorities in England. She found that young mothers developed a new-found 'belief' in education - not just for their own sake but also for their child's. The most successful schemes were where teenage mothers attended pupil referral units, rather than going back to school.

'These young women are generally disfranchised before they become pregnant,' she said. 'Education was not a priority. But you have a baby and you grow up. You realise there is going to be at least one person you will bring into the world.'

Dawson's work showed that attendance levels and exam results were all excellent as soon as the girls realised they were expecting.