Disruptive pupils ‘moved out of mainstream schooling’

Many disruptive pupils are effectively being excluded from schools and shunted out of mainstream education, according to research.

A study by the think tank Civitas suggested official exclusion statistics were misleading, because schools were moving badly behaved students into so-called “alternative provision” rather than expelling them.

Alternative provision is the term for education provided for students who are not in mainstream schools or special schools, but are instead taught in places such as pupil referral units (PRUs). Around 89 per cent of pupils in alternative provision are aged 11-16, and nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) are male. A large proportion have emotional and behavioural difficulties. The numbers of pupils who are permanently excluded from school have been steadily dropping for the last few years.

But the study found that the numbers attending classes in PRU’s had risen, as schools used “managed moves” or referrals” to move pupils, which did not show up in exclusion figures. “Clearly, permanent exclusion is being used less and less by mainstream schools, as a result of political pressure to exclude fewer pupils and out of a desire to intervene earlier in a pupil’s educational career with a less punitive process,” the study said.“As a consequence, permanent exclusion is more often useful as a threat than as a tool that schools will actually use.”

The study calls for permanent exclusions to be abolished, so that children must remain on the register of their school.While schools should retain the right to remove a youngster, the pupil should be given a say in where they are taught, at the moment they have no influence.

The report, which draws on evidence from local authorities, suggests that schools attempt to get the support of the pupil and their parents if a move was to be made.But it added: “The problem is that mainstream schools are able implicitly to threaten to permanently exclude the student, or subject the student to a referral, if their parents do not agree to the move.

“This leaves the potential for unscrupulous head teachers to make use of referrals and managed moves to get rid of challenging students without the need for a permanent exclusion.”