Challenging school exclusions in the wider community with professionals and beyond.

On 20th November, I attended the Right to Education (R2E) Learning Seminar aimed at professionals working with children and young people in Wales, to support families to navigate school disputes and exclusions. It provided a great opportunity to make use of my role as a volunteer ambassador on EYST’s R2E project.

Learning ‘the basics’

The training consisted of learning about what constitutes a “school exclusion” of which the most surprising to learn about for the group was that of “unofficial exclusions”. Some attendees shared their experiences of these types of exclusions where children are given a “cooling off period” and this is not recorded and therefore concerning as a child may go through many “unofficial exclusions” without their parents knowing, and without any record of it. Some parents are asked to come and pick their children up due to their behaviour and the school being unable to manage them, stemming from different reasons such as not having enough special educational needs support within a school. Some children are asked to “regulate” their behaviours and asked to go into rooms for a period of time where they are missing out on their learning and sometimes given lower-level work to meet their needs. However, as some attendees expressed, this should be in agreement with the parent and the school and should not be happening without the parent’s knowledge. It was also highlighted that parents have a right to see behavioural policies to ensure schools are not in breach of them.

The trainers, Amira Assami and Jami Abramson, gave an overview of the Welsh Government statistics of those most affected by school exclusions in Wales. Those with a Roma ethnic background have the highest statistics for fixed term exclusions. Those meeting the threshold for the highest rate of permanent exclusions were found to be from a Black ethnic background. It was also noted that children on free school meals and those who have additional learning needs are also found to be excluded at higher rates than their peers.

Another key point in the learning seminar was the importance of being aware of the Welsh Government guidance on school exclusions. The guidance state that the child must have caused serious or persistent breaches of the school behaviour policy to be considered for a permanent exclusion and in addition “if allowing the learner to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the learner or others in the school” (Welsh Government School Exclusions Guidance). As some of the case studies used in the session illustrated, this criteria was not always met in schools issuing permanent exclusions.

School exclusions case studies

During the session, case studies from the Right to Education service were used to support attendees to apply ‘the basics’ around school exclusions. In facilitation of the first case study, a young boy was permanently excluded for using a derogatory term to his teacher. He had shown remorse for his actions, met with the headteacher along with his family and apologised, however the exclusion had been upheld by the board of governors and the Independent Appeal Panel (IAP).

In looking at whether this case meets the criteria for a permanent exclusion, the groups considered and discussed the guidance from the government and found that it did not meet the criteria. One of the groups felt that this was a serious incident and may have breached the school’s behaviour policy but as a whole, it was a one-off incident as the child had no previous behavioural issues. Also, by apologising and engaging with learning from his mistake, the school could have used this opportunity to practice restorative justice or a lesser sanction would have been more appropriate. However, the school did not consider any of those mitigating factors and this gave rise to an unlawful decision by the school, board of governors and IAP. Another group mentioned they would advocate for the child’s needs alongside the family by highlighting their consistently good record, their remorse at the action and willingness to have a conversation with the teacher concerned to build back trust and co-operation.

The second case study we looked at concerned a boy who was permanently excluded for responding to racist bullies who attacked his sister repeatedly and his home. He had also suffered a bereavement of one parent recently. This case study caused many responses by the group participants, mainly that the fact that a child has suffered a recent bereavement calls for better pastoral care by the school. The school could have spoken to the family, offered their support, referred them to bereavement counselling. Some shared that the child should have a designated adult checking in with him showing that the school adopts a young person-centred approach. Another group mentioned that the school did not look at the reasons behind the child’s actions, the stressful period where racists abused his sister and then attacked his home which the school failed to consider in its decision making. Overall, the child was defending his sister and himself, grieving and asking for help through his actions.

It was very telling that the attendees of the facilitated groups all shared that the school had acted unfairly in both cases. The schools were seen to have acted impulsively, harshly and without any consideration to mitigating factors, applying lesser sanctions and attempting to use restorative strategies as solutions. It does not paint a picture of progressive schooling in Wales. However, what was positive to learn from the trainers was that in the cases where exclusion was unlawful, connecting families with legal support allowed fair representation, with young people and families putting their cases forward to achieve positive outcomes; one child went back to their school and the other opted for fresh start in a new school.

Broken school system?

In our feedback session with all attendees, it was clear to learn that sadly the school system is broken and there remains a rigidity in the school exclusion process. Schools often look at one incident in its entirety without applying any context or mitigating factors in their decision making. The trainers highlighted that at a strategic level the Welsh Government are revising the school exclusion guidance. Some of the gaps identified were that some practitioners, as well as families they work with, are just not aware of the threshold for what constitutes a school exclusion under the Welsh Government guidance, what mitigating factors apply in the decision making and what the process is for an appeal. Providing awareness amongst parents and the wider community around children’s rights and school exclusions is paramount.

All children have a right to education and in upholding this right we need to ensure we are providing young people and their families with the information and support to navigate the school exclusions process. Professionals working with children need to ensure children have the right to advocacy and to be represented throughout the appeal processes. We shared with professionals in our groups that they can signpost or get support from EYST and be referred for legal support from specialist children’s lawyers who specialise in education law.

It was important for me to highlight what children’s rights are and how we can uphold them. This was an inspiring group where it was clear that all of us want to work together to see lesser exclusions, more restorative methods in schools and more fair and just decisions all round.

Written by Yasmin Husain, Volunteer Ambassador for EYST.

Further reading

Referrals for Right to Education in EYST. If you know a minority ethnic young person who is at risk of/experiencing a school exclusion, feel free to get in touch with Amira to check if we can support amira@eyst.org.uk or use the Referral Form.

SNAP Cymru school exclusions resources. SNAP Cymru have lots of information on their website which may be helpful for school exclusions, especially if the young person has an additional learning need (ALN).

Welsh Government school exclusions data. Most recent data set was released in October for the 2022/23 academic year.

Welsh Government school exclusions guidance. This document provides guidance for all local authorities, school leaders, and schools across Wales when following processes of school exclusion. It can be useful to check sometimes if you know someone who has shared an experience as a young person/parent/carer when the process doesn’t sound correct. It can be referred to when meeting with headteachers.