Formal and informal exclusion: another voice of concern
18 November 2017
- Education
Author: Suzanne O’Connell
The children’s commissioner for England has added her voice to concerns about the misuse of exclusion, particularly informal exclusion.
Anne Longfield told the education select committee about schools that are encouraging children with behaviour difficulties to leave the school before they are formally excluded.
This will come as no surprise for most of those involved in school management. What is new is that it is being more openly discussed and in the political arena. The impact that this trend is having on home education has also raised some eyebrows.
As children are nudged out of schools, their parents are turning more and more to home education, alternative provision or even illegal schools. The children’s commissioner has released her briefing Falling through the Gaps in Education published in November 2017. It is aimed at MPs and she considers it only to be a starting point in beginning to tackle this issue.
Click here to view the briefing Falling through the Gaps in Education.
Similar concerns have been raised by Adoption UK who suggest that exclusion is 20 times more likely when a child is adopted and that many of these are informal exclusions. For further information click here.
About the author:
Dr. Suzanne O’Connell is a freelance writer specialising in education. Prior to this, she taught for 23 years and was a headteacher of a junior school in Nuneaton for 11 years.