Sharp Rise in School Suspensions in England

Many schools in England are repeatedly suspending pupils for short periods because it is too difficult to exclude them permanently, the Tories claim.

The number of children excluded more than 10 times in a single year went up from 310 in 2004 to 837 in 2007, figures obtained by the party show.

The government denies the claim that its policies have made it harder for heads to permanently exclude pupils.

A government adviser is due to publish his final report on school discipline.

Permanent exclusions, sometimes referred to as expulsions, have been falling over recent years, and 8,680 pupils were excluded in this way in 2006-07.

There were 425,600 fixed-term exclusions of pupils of all ages in 2006-07.

The majority of exclusions are given to secondary school pupils - and these rose between 2003 and 2007.

By the end of 2007, there had been 363,270 suspensions given to secondary school pupils - up from 288,040 in the school year 2003-04.

During the last academic year, 837 pupils had been suspended more than 10 times, according to answers given to the Conservatives by 125 county and London boroughs.

In 2003-04, the corresponding figure was 310.

Shadow schools minister Nick Gibb said: "Suspending a child from school over and over again does them no good at all.

"If a child has been seriously disruptive or violent, they should be properly removed so they can get the specialist help they need to return to mainstream education."

Schools secretary Ed Balls said one or two short suspensions could help a child get back on track but accepted that a child who is repeatedly suspended should be expelled.

The government's behaviour adviser, Sir Alan Steer, is due to report on how to tackle poor discipline in schools later.

He will say that schools and teachers are not using the full range of powers available to them to discipline badly behaved pupils.

The government and teaching professionals need to "raise awareness of the range of powers among schools, parents, pupils and teachers, including in particular the statutory power to discipline", he will say.

His report is expected to recommend the use of "withdrawal rooms" or other alternative provision.

Sir Alan will say that school provision out of the classroom should be used as part of a planned early intervention strategy and, if possible, before incidents of serious misbehaviour occur.

If a child is permanently excluded from school, there can be an appeal to an independent panel to try to be reinstated.

The Conservatives say they would abolish these panels.

They also say that potential fines for permanently excluding badly-behaved pupils mean schools are choosing to repeatedly exclude for a fixed period instead.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls said discipline in schools has improved in the last few years but where there were problems, teachers should be tougher and have the support of governors and parents.

"If you expel the pupil and then they are out on the streets or in the parks, it's a different kind of problem for society and that's not good enough," he said.

"These kids should be in education and so we are also saying to schools work together even if a pupil is excluded.

"Parents have got a job to keep them off the streets, let's not have them hanging out in the streets."

He also said the report would looked at bad behaviour beyond the school gates, including on buses.

BBC education correspondent Kim Catcheside said the report was aimed at making more teachers aware of the powers available to them, rather than outlining any new powers.

The report would also encourage schools with weaker discipline records to follow the lead of stronger schools, she added.

A survey of teachers has suggested five weeks of teaching a year is lost to teachers because of poor behaviour in the classroom.

The NASUWT teaching union, at its annual conference in Bournemouth, said on average 50 minutes of teaching was lost per teacher per day.

It surveyed 10,000 members last month and found "significant amounts of teaching time are lost every day as a result of disruptive or poor behaviour by pupils".

Much of this disruption is low-level annoyance, teachers said - such as arguments between pupils, a refusal to pay attention or being unready to start a lesson.

The government said temporary exclusions could be used as a "quick shock" to prevent behaviour getting worse. And it said that behaviour in schools was improving.

England's children's minister Delyth Morgan said: "Schools also have firm powers to permanently exclude pupils where needed, even for a first offence.

"We have repeatedly stated that a teacher's authority must be absolute in the classroom and support heads where they take the difficult decision to exclude.

"It is nonsense to suggest that there is a problem with independent appeals panels overturning exclusions. Only 1% of exclusions are overturned with pupils being reinstated."

It was right to give parents a fair right of appeal, she said.


With thanks to BBC News: bbc.co.uk/news for this news item.