“I’m out. They want me out!” raged a Year 11 in my school when he was excluded earlier this year. Do some teachers push out students they don’t like, or do students, because of their behaviour, make the jump themselves? The truth is not so clear either way.

It’s a Friday afternoon in my school and a Year 8 student has just been excluded for the third time in a month. The evidence against him is damning. He’s sworn, spat at and pushed students and teachers. Out of school he’s in trouble with the Police for stealing mopeds. He is a real danger to others and the school has to exclude him to protect the rest of the school community. But you can’t say this student has not had support before or been cut off from the school without a chance. He’s been on different levels of report, had extra support from the Learning Support Unit (LSU), a room in school for badly behaved or vulnerable students, and had a Learning Mentor for most of his time in the school. Some staff, especially those who run the LSU, have tried everything they can to support his better behaviour but it just gets worse.

This student and others argue the school is ‘against them’. In one sense they’re right: there is a point at which the Headteacher makes the executive decision they want a student out. Headteachers then build up evidence to support their case and put it in front of Governors who decide to uphold or reject the permanent exclusion of a student. But students get loads of chances to turn things around before this. At school a Year 11 student was close to permanent exclusion but turned things around when he realised where his life was heading. The school gave him chance after chance and he’s finally taken one. He told me he wouldn’t have been able to change his behaviour without his School Mentor. Already kicked out of home last year, if the school had been ‘against him’, he might now be on the streets stealing stuff for a living. Instead he has a chance of Higher Education or getting a job. Not that the school’s policy is only motivated by good intentions – it is simply not in the Headteacher’s interests to permanently exclude students. Once students are taken off the school roll, the school loses that student’s money. The Local Education Authority will also challenge the Headteacher if exclusions are high and it is bad for the school’s reputation in the community.

So do schools do all they can? And is the system fair? Well, there is a lot of support in schools for badly behaved students, but this support is often ill-coordinated. There is limited co-ordination between mainstream school, Pupil Referral Units (where badly behave students may be excluded to for up to 6 weeks before coming back into school) and centres of Alternative Education (see next article). There is sometimes also very little co-ordination between school and home. Much depends on the parents. Some parents may not understand – sometimes because of their limited English – the school’s behaviour policy. Some advocate well for their children – some even call in education lawyers – whilst others remain silent. In school, one parent had their child’s exclusion overturned, whilst others are resigned to what the school tells them. Sometimes, this can be partial information – parents are often lead to believe their child must go into alternative education when, in fact, this option can be refused and a student continue in the school (For further information on fighting exclusion see advice given by the Advisory Centre for Education click here ). Much also depends on a student’s academic ability because schools are constantly fighting for better results. A student with the 5+ A-Cs potential at GCSE will last much longer than those without that potential.

Teachers have told me “some students are just not cut out for mainstream schooling” and some students may think this is an excuse for kicking them out. But, in truth, it usually isn’t. Students do get chance after chance to do better and the school will do everything it can (after all, it’s in its own interest) to prevent permanent exclusion. Students take the final steps out of school for themselves. Ultimately, everyone in school, however misunderstood and unfairly treated, is responsible for their own behaviour.

Tom Sawbridge