Statutory | Yes |
Staff member | Rosalind Morgan |
Governor | |
Committee | n/a |
Full Governing Body | Yes |
Last amendment date | Autumn 2020 |
Renewal date | Autumn 2023 |
Contents
2. Legislation and statutory guidance 3
5. Roles and responsibilities 4
6. Considering the reinstatement of a pupil 5
9. Returning from a fixed-term exclusion 7
11. Links with other policies 8
Appendix 1: Independent review panel training 9
Our school aims to ensure that:
This policy is based on statutory guidance from the Department for Education: Exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units (PRUs) in England.
It is based on the following legislation, which outline schools’ powers to exclude pupils:
In addition, the policy is based on:
Only the Executive Head Teacher, or Head of School, can exclude a pupil from school. A permanent exclusion will be taken as a last resort.
Our school is aware that off-rolling is unlawful. Ofsted defines off-rolling as:
“…the practice of removing a pupil from the school roll without a formal, permanent exclusion or by encouraging a parent to remove their child from the school roll, when the removal is primarily in the interests of the school rather than in the best interests of the pupil.”
We are committed to following all statutory exclusions procedures to ensure that every child receives an education in a safe and caring environment.
A decision to exclude a pupil will be taken only:
Before deciding whether to exclude a pupil, either permanently or for a fixed period, the Executive Head Teacher and/or Head of School will:
For the purposes of exclusions, school day is defined as any day on which there is a school session. Therefore, INSET or staff training days do not count as a school day.
5.1 The Executive Head Teacher and/or Head of School
Informing parents
The Executive Head Teacher and/or Head of School will immediately provide the following information, in writing, to the parents of an excluded pupil:
The Executive Head Teacher and/or Head of School will also notify parents by the end of the afternoon session on the day their child is excluded that for the first 5 school days of an exclusion, or until the start date of any alternative provision where this is earlier, parents are legally required to ensure that their child is not present in a public place during school hours without a good reason. Parents may be given a fixed penalty notice or prosecuted if they fail to do this.
If alternative provision is being arranged, the following information will be included when notifying parents of an exclusion:
Where this information on alternative provision is not reasonably ascertainable by the end of the afternoon session, it may be provided in a subsequent notice, but it will be provided no later than 48 hours before the provision is due to start. The only exception to this is where alternative provision is to be provided before the sixth day of an exclusion, in which case the information can be provided with less than 48 hours’ notice with parents’ consent.
Informing the governing board and local authority
The Executive Head Teacher and/or Head of School will immediately notify the governing board and the local authority (LA) of:
For a permanent exclusion, if the pupil lives outside the LA in which the school is located, the Executive Head Teacher and/or Head of School will also immediately inform the pupil’s ‘home authority’ of the exclusion and the reason(s) for it without delay.
For all other exclusions, the Executive Head Teacher and/or Head of School will notify the governing board and LA once a term.
5.2 The governing board
Responsibilities regarding exclusions is delegated to a panel consisting of at least 3 governors.
The panel has a duty to consider the reinstatement of an excluded pupil (see section 6).
Within 14 days of receipt of a request, the governing board will provide the secretary of state and the Local Authority with information about any exclusions in the last 12 months.
For a fixed-period exclusion of more than 5 school days, the governing board will arrange suitable full-time education for the pupil. This provision will begin no later than the sixth day of the exclusion.
5.3 The LA
For permanent exclusions, the LA is responsible for arranging suitable full-time education to begin no later than the sixth day of the exclusion.
The panel will consider the reinstatement of an excluded pupil within 15 school days of receiving the notice of the exclusion if:
The exclusion is permanent
It is a fixed-term exclusion which would bring the pupil's total number of school days of exclusion to more than 15 in a term
It would result in a pupil missing a public examination
If requested to do so by parents, the panel will consider the reinstatement of an excluded pupil within 50 school days of receiving notice of the exclusion if the pupil would be excluded from school for more than 5 school days, but less than 15, in a single term.
Where an exclusion would result in a pupil missing a public examination, the panel will consider the reinstatement of the pupil before the date of the examination. If this is not practicable, the chair of the governing board (or the vice-chair where the chair is unable to make this consideration) will consider the exclusion independently and decide whether or not to reinstate the pupil.
The panel can either:
In reaching a decision, the panel will consider whether the exclusion was lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair and whether the Executive Head Teacher and/or Head of School followed their legal duties. They will decide whether or not a fact is true ‘on the balance of probabilities’, which differs from the criminal standard of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, as well as any evidence that was presented in relation to the decision to exclude.
Minutes will be taken of the meeting, and a record of evidence considered kept. The outcome will also be recorded on the pupil’s educational record.
the panel will notify, in writing, the Executive Head Teacher and/or Head of School , parents and the LA of its decision, along with reasons for its decision, without delay.
Where an exclusion is permanent, the panel’s decision will also include the following:
If parents apply for an independent review, the Local Authority will arrange for an independent panel to review the decision of the governing board not to reinstate a permanently excluded pupil.
Applications for an independent review must be made within 15 school days of notice being given to the parents by the panel of its decision to not reinstate a pupil.
A panel of 3 or 5 members will be constituted with representatives from each of the categories below. Where a 5-member panel is constituted, 2 members will come from the school governors category and 2 members will come from the headteacher category.
A person may not serve as a member of a review panel if they:
A clerk will be appointed to the panel.
The independent panel will decide one of the following:
The panel’s decision can be decided by a majority vote. In the case of a tied decision, the chair has the casting vote.
A pupil's name will be removed from the school admissions register if:
Where an application for an independent review has been made, the governing board will wait until that review has concluded before removing a pupil’s name from the register.
Where alternative provision has been made for an excluded pupil and they attend it, code B (education off-site) or code D (dual registration) will be used on the attendance register.
Where excluded pupils are not attending alternative provision, code E (absent) will be used.
Following a fixed-term exclusion, a re-integration meeting will be held involving the pupil, parents, a member of senior staff and other staff, where appropriate.
The following measures may be implemented when a pupil returns from a fixed-term exclusion:
The Head of School monitors the number of exclusions every term and reports back to the Governors. They also liaise with the local authority to ensure suitable full-time education for excluded pupils.
This policy will be reviewed by the Deputy Head Teacher every 3 years. At every review, the policy will be shared with the governing board.
This exclusions policy is linked to our
The LA must ensure that all members of an independent review panel and clerks have received training within the 2 years prior to the date of the review.
Training must have covered: