The teenager who has stayed away from a York secondary school because of stress is set to take his GCSE examinations at the city's pupil support centre.

Chris Kettlestring, 15, from New Earswick, stopped attending Huntington School before last week's half-term break because he said he had been bullied over the last three years. A doctor's note said he was suffering from stress.

Head teacher Chris Bridge said two of the alleged bullies had been permanently excluded from the school as part of action taken to tackle the problem.

But the school said it was impossible for Chris to take his GCSE exams at Huntington if he did not attend and complete course work within the school.

Today Murray Rose, principal education officer at the City of York Council, said Chris had been offered a place at the council's pupil support centre in Acomb if he did not wish to return to Huntington.

He said: "The centre offers individually-tailored timetables for pupils and transfers their GCSE entry and coursework grades from their original school. It enables pupils to complete their education successfully, if they are unable to return to full-time mainstream schooling."

He said much of GCSE coursework had to be completed with a teacher present who was registered and trained to assess it.

"The school made strenuous efforts to support the pupil in making a full-time return to school. This included meeting the family, the doctor and LEA (local education authority) staff. They were also fully aware of the support the LEA could offer if the pupil was not able to return to school.

"In the case of a pupil who has a note from a doctor saying that he or she is not well enough to return to school before ceasing to be of school age, or where a parent has made alternative arrangements, then a school can remove a pupil from its register.

"The school are maintaining the pupil on their register until they are informed that he should be removed from it because of one of the reasons listed above."

Mr Rose said head teachers had a legal duty to take action to deal with bullying in their schools and cases of bullying were dealt with by schools.

If parents were not happy about actions taken by the head teacher, they could contact the governors. If they were still not satisfied, they could contact the council, who would investigate further.

Chris's mum, Lynne Kettlestring, said her son wanted to take up the place at the support centre and said they appreciated the help they had received from the council's education social workers.

"I'm grateful that they are going to help us out, but still not happy that my son is not in school with the rest of the kids having a normal life," she said.

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