The issue of School Exclusion and the powers for Head teachers to exclude may increase with the expected tougher line on behaviour with the new government in the UK.
However does exclusion work in terms of preventing repeat behaviour from the individuals concerned and does it act as a deterrent to other potential offenders?
What should warrant exclusion and which behaviours should trigger this response?
Alternatively which behaviours should trigger the message that the child’s learning needs are not being understood at this time?
Exclusion you could argue is overused and underused as a response to student behaviour.
As a Head teacher myself I have excluded student’s when I felt that we as a school could no longer best meet the needs of the child. In every case however the common factor was that we could not count on any response from the parent or carer in options that we were considering to help the situation.
It does seem however in my opinion that in many situations Exclusion appear to be a blunt instrument to respond to behaviour that does not resolve the issues rather than to make them some one else’s problem.
What do you think?
Fin Oregan
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Hi Fin – Great website!!
Re exclusions: Whilst I appreciate that exclusion is the only option for some pupils I feel that in many cases it is an indication of the school’s (and the systems) inability to provide appropriately, taking the pupil’s background and life experiences to date into account. Further, to consider fining parents for truanting children is a reaction to the truanting which does nothing to address the issues and problems causing the pupil to truant in the first place. Schools and authorities need to focus on responding to the needs of these pupils and not penalising families further, which is unlikely to make them return to the classroom anyway.
When you hear the stories of some of the teenagers lives in pupil referral units it is little wonder they have responded through inappropriate and often violent behaviour – they have pretty much been rejected by everyone in their lives, so how are they supposed to be feeling? How are they supposed to react? These teenagers have not failed, but the systems have failed them.
What is the answer? It is complex and involves professionals from a range of agencies to work much more closely together and to really listen to families and the children themselves – the CAF is not the simple answer. We also need more teachers to consider the child holistically and to worry less about ticking curriculum boxes and meeting targets, and more about addressing their needs of these troubled pupils. In my view it is pointless attempting to deliver a curriculum to pupils of any age, who are not able to access and engage with that curriculum. Address their problems and needs first then try the curriculum – which needs to be relevant to the pupil and their future lives.
Early intervention is also critical as many of these pupils can be identified very early in their lives – yet with social workers and health visitors having huge caseloads, this is unlikely to happen – these are the professionals that have access to families and homes from a child’s birth and are well aware of families (and children) experiencing difficulties, so they will be key.
Right, my rant is done so I’ll get back to the day job!
Regards, Kate Wall
If we have to exclude it has to be a measured response – clearly arrived at, with delineated steps, explained and communicated to all concerned.
There will of course be the one off incidents of “unusual impact” that need to be considered also.
found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later
I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.
learned a lot
thanks
Fin
No problem happy to help
Fin
thanks for replying
Fin