'Hiding the problem won't solve school exclusion rates'

Cath Murray, Alternative Provision Programme Lead at Centre for Social Justice
Rahil Ahmad
Cath Murray8 January 2020

No parent wants an exclusion on their child’s record. And many schools and local authorities want to keep their exclusion rates down. But the right way to do this is early intervention with children and families, not through massaging the statistics.

The Government isn’t calling for reduced exclusion rates, but campaigners and mainstream media are. This is both a good and bad thing.

Good, because it’s shining a light on the poor outcomes of children educated in alternative provision (AP) and sometimes dropping out of education altogether, being left vulnerable to exploitation.

Bad, because in the panic to avoid negative media coverage, some exclusions are simply pushed underground.

Exclusions don’t always lead to bad outcomes.

The Commons Education Committee last year heard evidence from young people on how AP had been the best place for them.

I’ve seen many examples of excellent AP schools, and some children who are struggling to engage with mainstream education may need a different approach.

There are also valid debates over whether some heads are too quick to exclude, whether their behaviour policies are too rigid and whether they should be providing — and government should be funding — more specialist support for pupils with complex circumstances.

But none of this will be solved by hiding exclusions.

If schools and local authorities really believe too many children are being moved into AP, they should address this by supporting children to stay in mainstream schools, not through an administrative trick.

That’s why we are calling on the Government to publish not just exclusion rates, but the rates of all children moving into AP.

It’s a simple statistical change — but one that would help ensure that all pupil moves are done in the best interests of the child, and never for the sake of league tables.

Cath Murray is alternative provision lead at the Centre for Social Justice.

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