More than 10,000 children were permanently excluded from England’s state schools last year, alongside record numbers of suspensions involving pupils aged six or younger or with special needs, as teachers struggled to cope with worsening behaviour.
The figures for the 2023-24 academic year revealed that the number of permanent exclusions leapt up by 16% compared with the year before, while the total number of suspension days rose by 21% to 955,000.
Four children out of every 100 received at least one suspension during the year, with more than 100,000 suspended for the equivalent of a week or longer.
Although the vast majority of suspensions and exclusions were in secondary schools, peaking at ages 13 to 14, the sanctions increased more rapidly in primary schools among children whose earliest education was disrupted by the Covid pandemic and associated school closures.
The Department for Education data showed the number of suspensions in primary schools exceeded 100,000 for the first time on record, while 471 children aged six or younger were expelled.
Sophie Schmal, the director of Chance UK, a charity that supports young children at risk of exclusion, said: “When you have children as young as five and six years old being permanently excluded from school then clearly something is going very wrong.
“Every day, we see children and families being let down by a system that is failing to support them early enough.
“We are also concerned that stripping away education, health and care plans (EHCPs) will leave more children at risk of exclusion and disengagement from school.
“The support and funding that the most vulnerable children require to thrive in a school setting needs to be a priority for this government and we cannot afford to let these children fall through the cracks. Early intervention has to mean early – we can’t wait until these children are teenagers to tackle this.”
Lorraine Anderson, a family support manager with Chance UK in London, said: “We have to acknowledge that Covid probably had an impact. These are children who were not socialised for a long time.
“It’s really worrying. We are seeing more permanent exclusions in primary school and the statistics tell us that 90% of children excluded from primary school will not pass GCSEs in maths and English.”
Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “Schools work tirelessly to support pupils but they alone cannot address the causes and symptoms of poor behaviour. They need back-up in the shape of additional investment in vital services like social care, children’s mental health, behaviour support teams and special educational needs provision, which have been reduced or failed to keep up with demand over the last decade.”
Stephen Morgan, the minister for early education, said: “Every moment in the classroom counts – but with almost 1m suspensions in the 2023 academic year, the evidence is clear that this government’s inheritance was classrooms in chaos, with swathes of the next generation cut off from the opportunity to get on in life.”
More than half of the 10,900 students excluded had special educational needs, including more than 1,000 with EHCPs, statutory agreements between families and local authorities for individual provision, which are under threat from the government’s special needs reforms.
Jane (not her real name) has gone through numerous exclusions with her children, who all have special needs. Her 13-year-old was first excluded in primary school. More exclusions followed, and he was finally diagnosed with ADHD.
“I would get a call asking me to come pick him up because he had been excluded again. And with every exclusion, the problem would grow deeper,” said Jane.
“We kept having to go to ‘reintegration meetings’ every time he was excluded … and then he would be sent home again a few days later. It was so frustrating, and I felt like no one was interested in giving him the support he needed to engage with school properly.
“He is now in his first year of secondary school, and things have gotten even worse. I feel like he now has that ‘naughty child’ label, and the exclusions just keep coming. He is missing so much school and being left with nothing to do and no meaningful support.”
