Express & Star

Wolverhampton school exclusions quadruple in one year

School exclusions in Wolverhampton more than quadrupled over the last year, new figures have revealed.

Published

In 2014/15 a total of 43 pupils were expelled from primary and secondary schools across the city, compared to 10 the previous year.

Seven children were taken out of schools for physically attacking members of staff and six were excluded for assaults on fellow pupils.

The figures were provided to the Express & Star through a Freedom of Information request and show that two children were removed for incidents involving racist abuse, while three were thrown out for using drugs or alcohol on school premises.

Fifteen of the exclusions were for persistently disruptive behaviour and one child was removed from a secondary school for an incident involving sexual misconduct.

A total of 29 youngsters were removed from secondary schools and 14 from primaries.

The figures relate to all Wolverhampton council controlled primary, secondary and special schools, and do not include academies.

Fixed period exclusions, where youngsters are taken out of school for a certain number of days before being allowed to return, also saw a steep rise.

There were 1,551 in 2014/15 compared to 1,273 in 2013/14 and 960 the year before. The figures represent a 62 per cent increase in two years.

Tory leader Councillor Wendy Thompson said that exclusions were often necessary in order to ensure the safety of pupils and staff.

"To exclude a child from school should always be a last resort," she said. "As you can see from the figures a number of incidents involved violence, which of course has no place in our schools.

"The important issue is that any child's period away from school is used in a positive manner by the relevant authorities and the child themselves to prepare them for their return to education.

"What we don't want to see is issues transferred from one school to another without any appropriate intervention."

Prior to 2013/14 Wolverhampton council was one of only a small number of authorities in the country to operate a policy of not permanently excluding pupils from schools.

Instead pupils who misbehaved were placed in alternative provision, often at another site, while remaining enrolled at the school.

The policy was brought in as education bosses considered moving 'problem' youngsters from one school to another to be an inappropriate course of action.

When a child is excluded from a school the local authority has a duty to find them a place at another school in the city.

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