Exclusions

Exclusion is a very serious matter. Only a school’s head teacher (or a person with delegated authority to act on behalf of the head teacher, if the head teacher is not on the school site) can exclude a pupil.

A head teacher may decide to exclude a pupil only when he/she is sure that:

The pupil has broken the school’s discipline policy; and
If the pupil remaining in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school.

There are two main types of exclusion - fixed period and permanent.

Fixed period exclusion (FPE)

A pupil is excluded from school for a fixed number of days and a date is set for a return to school. During this period the pupil must not enter the school premises. Unless there are exceptional circumstances (for example, new evidence comes to light about the incident for which the pupil was excluded or the FPE was "in the first instance" with a clear statement that this is the case and that it may be extended or turned into a permanent exclusion), the pupil must return to school on the day following the last day of exclusion, even if the parent/carer cannot attend any reintegration meeting which may be arranged.

Permanent exclusion (PE)

This is where the school wants to remove the pupil from their school roll - the pupil will not return to that school unless the Governors' Disciplinary Committee which reviews the Head Teacher's decision to permanently exclude overturns that decision OR unless a parent/carer appeals against the Governors' decision and the Independent Appeal Panel overturns the exclusion AND directs reinstatement (the IAP does not have to direct reinstatement).

A head teacher will usually only permanently exclude a pupil as a last resort, after trying to improve their behaviour through other means. However, there are exceptional circumstances in which a head teacher may decide to permanently exclude a pupil for a first or "one-off" offence.