Mon 2 Sep 2019 18.02 BST
Last modified on Mon 2 Sep 2019 18.25 BST
As chair of a working party that was set up earlier this year by the all-party law reform organisation Justice to review the procedures that govern school exclusions in England, I was deeply concerned by the report that the government is considering making it easier for schools to exclude students (Tories’ controversial school plans revealed in leaked document, 28 August).
As the Timpson review of school exclusions from May 2019 shows, this could cause serious and irreparable harm to some of our most disadvantaged and vulnerable children.
Our working party is yet to finalise its conclusions. However, it is already abundantly clear, from the Timpson review and the testimony we have received from a wide range of stakeholders (including current and former headteachers, senior staff in multi-academic trusts and local education authorities, lawyers specialising in education law, and representatives from a number of organisations which promote the welfare and rights of school-age children), that there is no case whatsoever for loosening the processes for excluding pupils and for reviewing these decisions. Indeed, there is a very strong one for tightening them.
Our report, to be published in the autumn, will recommend how this could be done, without prejudicing the ability of heads to run their schools effectively.
Professor Richard de Friend
London
• The Tory rhetoric on schools includes cracking down on behaviour. What this approach fails to recognise is that many of the children with special educational needs and disabilities, about whom they profess to be concerned, are children on the autism spectrum, children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and children who have experienced trauma.
These are the vulnerable children who will be targeted by hard-pressed teachers and school leaders who have too few resources and too little training to meet their needs adequately in mainstream school settings.
Linda Rhead
Hampton, London
• The government plans to give schools powers to “promote good behaviour using sanctions and rewards”. This approach may work with children who come from strong, supportive backgrounds but has little impact on those struggling with acute or chronic negative life experiences. I worked with such young people as a teacher and educational psychologist and virtually all of them had been neglected, abused, experienced loss or witnessed violence.
Only relational, nurturing approaches work in helping change behaviour sustainably “from the inside out”. Controlling approaches and punishment give vulnerable pupils another reason to believe they are worthless, unwanted and have no voice. Teachers want the best for the children they teach but need training, support and space to develop those relationships that make the difference. This is not “soft” – this is what works.
Dr Sue Roffey
Muswell Hill, London
• The report on the high rate of exclusions at Red House academy in Sunderland (School in academy chain suspends more than half its students in a year, 31 August) gives little mention of the progress made thanks to a firmer behaviour policy.
Inspectors noted in September 2018 that behaviour was “much improved” with pupils saying there were “fewer interruptions because of poor behaviour”. The “rapidly improving” behaviour at the school is, without doubt, a result of a harder line with pupils being asked to obey the rules they have agreed to.
The GCSE results speak for themselves with a marked rise this year in core subjects in a part of Sunderland noted for a high level of deprivation.
Those pupils who have been excluded may lose out but it is, of course, through their own choice, with other pupils held back by their peers’ poor behaviour.
Councillor Robert Oliver
Leader, Conservative group, Sunderland city council
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