NUT: Illegal Exclusions
Commenting on Always Someone Else’s Problem, a report by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner published today, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said:
“There are no quick fixes for pupils with challenging behaviour. Schools, however, should not be dealing with any problems by unofficially excluding pupils."
“The report stresses the importance and need of local authority support services, yet due to budget cuts the very services that could be of help to schools are being severely cut. The fragmentation of the education system with the Government’s Free Schools and academies programme will make this situation even worse. By cutting schools adrift from their local authority many schools will struggle to cope with the issues that some of their pupils face."
“The report refers to the pressures that schools are put under by high stakes league tables and Ofsted inspections. It really is time that we stopped this. It is distorting education and is bad for pupils."
“The majority of those who gave evidence to the report raised concerns about the admissions policies of schools being used as a means to exclude pupils: examples of parents of SEN pupils being dissuaded from applying, parents being told that expensive school trips were compulsory and school uniforms being prohibitively expensive were given."
"Academies have excluded pupils and carried out fixed term exclusions at a far greater rate than state maintained schools. This is a pattern that has been evident over a number of years. We need to have a clear and transparent admissions policy for all schools that ensures all pupils, regardless of educational needs or parents’ wealth, can gain a place at school.”
-01.png){kind=spacer}