A TEARFUL mum who claims her special needs son is forced to attend mainstream lessons at a Malvern high school has appeared in court for not making him go.

Sylvia Williams admitted failing to ensure each of her three children attended school when she appeared before Droitwich magistrates.

Richard Jones, prosecuting, told the court 15-year-old Zoe, Leanne, aged eight, and their brother Jeremy, 12, had been skipping school between February and May.

Zoe managed 57 lessons out of a possible 94 at Cliffey House School, near Malvern, while Leanne, a pupil at The Grove Junior School in Malvern, went to 26 out of 98.

But out of 94 lessons scheduled at The Dyson Perrins C E High School, Jeremy went to just one. And he had not been back to school since the start of this term, the court heard.

Williams, aged 40, sobbed as she told the court she had suffered a stroke and nervous breakdown since she split from her husband.

Zoe had stayed away from school to look after her, but was keen to go back to the classroom and forge a career in nursing homes.

Williams found it difficult to walk uphill, and so had not managed to take Leanne to school on many occasions, she said.

But the mum-of-three said despite repeated calls to the LEA, Jeremy still had to attend lessons at Dyson Perrins - even though he could not read and write.

"I went in there for two hours a day and I had to teach him myself," she fumed.

"I did that for about a month - the secretary will vouch for me. I didn't register him at reception because I was teaching him there myself.

"He can't cope with school. He's not capable. He can't even write. He's first-year level at infants' school. He gets bullied because he can't keep up, and he's frightened."

She said the 12-year-old became so frustrated he kicked doors down and broke windows at the family home in Ransoms Close, Malvern.

"He needs to go to a special school," she said.

"I've been run ragged for the past two years. I've tried everything and I've had no one to help me. If he was given a place at Cliffey House, with his sister, he'd go there."

Williams was given an absolute discharge for the charges concerning Zoe and Leanne, and a nine-month conditional discharge for the charge relating to Jeremy.