Latest News:Latest News - August 2010
School Exclusion – Another Labour plan thwarted?
Our new coalition government has stepped forward to put on hold plans to force schools in England to co-operate with each other over pupils excluded from lessons.
The 'one in, one out' policy effectively meant that schools in a geographical area had to agree to take in an excluded pupil from another local school whenever they excluded a pupil from their own establishment.
The scheme was due to come into force this September, but the new government – keen to expand the Academies education model, which operates outside of Local Authority control – has said that it is disadvantaged pupils who will suffer most if the new exclusion from school plans were to be implemented.
By being forced to accept a disruptive child excluded from another local school - having excluded their own misbehaving pupil - teachers themselves fear that the vicious cycle of classroom disruption, bullying, violence and truancy will continue apace.
Before coming to power in the coalition, the Conservative Party clearly stated that it would abolish the rules "forcing good schools to take pupils expelled from bad ones".
Should the scheme eventually go ahead, it would certainly impact upon the education of children who have seen the back of one 'bad apple', only to have another thrust into their midst to disrupt their education further.
However, many people are concerned that if schools are able to exclude without fear of being made to take a fair share of difficult to place children, they will use exclusion from school as a first resort instead of a last resort. There is also a risk that the only schools which will take excluded children will continue to be those which are undersubscribed where there is often a high proportion of children with special needs or behaviour problems.
This should be a worrying thought for parents whose children are experiencing difficulties in the school environment and who may be excluded from school before other options have been explored.
It is also a worry for parents whose children’s education is suffering from the disproportionate attention given to a disruptive pupil at the expense of their own children’s learning, particularly if there are several such children in a class.
This 'one in, one out' exclusion from school issue is a thorny one and will throw up passionate arguments from all sides of the story.
As experts in Education Law with a strong track record of handling school exclusion cases, we are following developments closely and would be happy to offer advice and guidance if you would like to take legal action in this specialised area of law.
Please get in touch with our team on: 01524 596080 or email us at office@mglaw.co.uk.
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© Maxwell Gillott 2008
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