Spinning for Schools

Reports out yesterday showed that the number of exclusions fell last year, with Ivan Lewis, Education Minister saying to the BBC that they were finally getting the balance right.

Ok, time for the truth. The proportion of pupils excluded as a percentage of school numbers has stood still. The reason that exclusions have fallen is because there are less people attending school. How many times has the Labour Government proclaimed the end of Spin?

Confidence amongst parents over exclusion remains poor with 72% of adults thinking that truancy and poor discipline had worsened.

My own experience is that the move towards including some of the more difficult Special Needs cases in mainstream schools has increased problems, because very often these cases have a behavioral impact. But, where the cause of bad behaviour in these cases is caused by severe issues at home, schools are often reluctant to move towards exclusion because it will adversely affect the one piece of stability in that child's life. Schools are putting up with worse behaviour in these cases even if, sometimes, it has a negative impact on other children.

I am not sure this is a good thing, I think there are better ways of finding stability for these children, but schools' hands are tied because of the changes in SEN provision that have come about through Government policy.