School exclusions, according to new figurers, are reaching the highest annual numbers in England. Over 9,000 children were excluded from school during the 2022/23 school year. “Persistent disruptive behaviour” was the most common reason cited for both suspension and exclusions in that year.
One in five teachers reported earlier this year to have been hit by a pupil in a survey commissioned by the BBC. Simon Kidwell, former head at a primary school in Cheshire and president of the National Association of Head Teachers says that this is noy just due to worsening behaviour from pupils.
Schools, he believes, are struggling to cope with the rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and this, he says, is closely linked to the rising number of exclusions. Issues related to both recruiting and retaining teaching staff are also factors.
Teaching assistants, he says, “spend many years and develop real skills working with our most challenging children” before “leaving in droves” and specialist schools which would be better equipped to help support pupils with complex needs are overcrowded.
Exclusions, says Beth Prescott, education lead at the Centre for Social Justice, “have a place” in the system, but in some cases could be “masking an underlying unmet need. Pupils, she says, are being affected by issues “beyond the school gates.”
The rising number of children with SEND, she said, was among the “barrage of obstacles” for children to engage with their schooling. This includes worsening mental health, long NHS waiting list, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. These issues are among the many reasons for persistent absent.
Persistent absences, meaning that they miss at least 10% of school, rose after the pandemic as one in five children is now recorded as being absent for one or more days every fortnight. These, Mr Kidwell, says is also linked to the rising number of exclusions.
