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