A SCHOOL has defended its decision to bar a teen from the prom – twice.

Georgina Macaulay said she had turned things around since she was banned from the school prom at the start of the school year due to poor behaviour.

She claimed that staff at Hounsdown School in Totton had noticed her efforts to improve in the months leading up to the event and assured her she would be allowed in.

The 16-year-old from Buckthorn Close, Totton, who is expecting to achieve Cs to A*s in her GCSE examinations, said she bought a dress and had her hair done.

Daily Echo:

But when she arrived at the event at Botley Park Hotel on June 26 she was turned away at the door.

Now her family have criticised the school for giving her false hope.

Dad, Marc, 44, a carer, said: “I think it’s disgraceful. I understand that kids are naughty but kids are kids at the end of the day."

“The teacher said she had come on really well and that they think the world of my daughter.”

Daily Echo:

Georgina who scooped the funniest girl and cutest couple prizes in the school’s end of year awards, said: “I felt like I had been given so much false hope.

"I was devastated. I thought it would be fun and they turned me away."

“For me it was a really important thing from a young age.

“I tried my hardest to turn things around. They shouldn’t have said if if they knew there was any way I would be turned away."

Georgina said she was first banned from the prom after clocking up too many behavioural points after being sent out of class at the beginning of year 11.

She told the Daily Echo that, disappointed with the news, she wrote an apologetic letter to the head and worked hard to impress teachers.

Daily Echo:

With just seven days before the event two teachers said they had noticed her efforts and they would do their best to get her through the doors, she claimed.

The youngster is the second member of her family to be banned from the Hounsdown School prom.

Georgina now joins her brother Lewis who was also banned from the Hounsdown prom three years ago.

The school declined to comment on the details of Georgina’s case, but deputy headteacher Mr Veal said:

“All consequences of both good and poor behaviour are designed to have a positive impact on the school as a community and to help students learn the rules of polite society.

"Schools think long and hard so that the balance is right and consequences for behaviour are dealt with correctly.

“We all want students to learn that in any society there are inevitably consequences for behaviour, whatever it is.”