We should not exclude unruly pupils says John Light

Today I have heard some gangs are asking members to take knives to school in order to be excluded when caught.

For the last dozen years of my educational life I was a deputy head or head in inner city areas, involved in making and implementing policy regarding exclusions.

Two points need to be made.

Firstly, it is important to support the teacher in the classroom and by so doing ensure teaching in not hindered.

Some pupils have to be removed.

Secondly, excluding a pupil can be little more than giving a pupil a licence to play truant.

With nowhere to go they are on the streets, not a good thing for a vulnerable young person.

I was and am against exclusions.

They must not be excluded from the mainstream school unless they have somewhere to go, where their education can be continued and their behaviour moderated.

In a large inner city comprehensive school in Birmingham (mid 1970) we implemented the best solution.

It was a withdrawal unit on the main school site.

We had the space and crucially the cash for staffing.

Wayward pupils (not too many) would spend all or some of the week there.

They could be fed back into the curriculum as appropriate.

The unit was well staffed and resourced. It had to be.

Is cash available now?

Pupils are pretty cunning and at first outwitted us.

They perceived that being in the unit was more pleasing than being in the classroom and behaved poorly in order to be sent there.

We twigged this quickly and acted accordingly.

Just think ‘short, sharp shock’.

It was easy for us to set this up.

The school was large enough and staffing flexible enough to support it.

Now it is very different and schools are not all large.

Groups of medium sized schools can form a joint unit if geography allows.

Rural areas have a problem.

There has to be sufficient resources available to ensure no pupil is excluded without somewhere to go.

In these days of cuts it is difficult but this is a priority.