Education Bulletin - Summer 2019

The key findings and recommendations of the Timpson Review of School Exclusion and the impact on exclusions and behaviour management in practice.

The Timpson Review of School Exclusion, commissioned to explore how head teachers use exclusion in practice and why some groups of pupils are more likely to be excluded, includes findings and recommendations that are important not just for mainstream, special and alternative provision but also for health and social care agencies and the government

Key findings of the Timpson Review of School Exclusion

The key findings, summarised below, provide a frame of reference for the recommendations that follow

Outcomes

Of concern is the fact that the outcomes of excluded children are often poor with just 7% of children who were permanently excluded and 18% of children who received multiple fixed period exclusions in 2015/16 achieving good passes in English and maths GCSEs. Only 4.5% of pupils educated in Alternative Provision ("AP") in 2015/16 achieved a good pass in English and maths at GCSE. Excluded children are also at higher risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) and a victim or perpetrator of crime and are vulnerable to exploitation. There is therefore a pressing need for high quality provision for excluded pupils to ensure they achieve their full potential and keep them safe.

Vulnerable groups

The groups who more likely to be excluded include:

children with special education needs or and/or a disability ("SEND"), particularly children with social, emotional and mental health ("SEMH") including in relation to attachment and trauma children who have been supported by social care including Children in Need, looked after children and those who have left local authority ("LA") care via adoption, Special Guardianship or a Child Arrangement Order Irish, Black Caribbean, Gypsy and Roma children; and children eligible for free school meals, boys and older pupils. Children who have several characteristics are at even greater risk of exclusion.

Given the range of factors that lead to poor behaviour and exclusion, schools and health and social care agencies therefore need to work together, before and after exclusion, to give children the best chance to succeed.

EHC plans

This is reinforced by the fact that children with EHC plans are 2.8 times more likely to have a fixed period exclusion, when compared with all children, and that exclusion is sometimes used as a tool to ensure a child...