School exclusions show sharp fall

Southborough's Ridgewaye Centre takes KCC excluded children

A policy of giving disruptive children a "last chance" move to another school is being credited with a sharp fall in permanent exclusions in Medway.

In all, 32 children were permanently excluded from the authority's schools in the year 2005-2006, compared with 111 five years earlier in 2001-2002.

Meanwhile, Kent County Council (KCC) schools excluded 350 children last year, up from 277 in 2001-2002.

A KCC spokeswoman said it had some lessons to learn from Medway.

MEDWAY EXCLUSIONS 2001-2002 111 (94 secondary, 17 primary) 2002-2003 67 (60 secondary, 7 primary) 2003-2004 89 (77 secondary, 12 primary) 2004-2005 55 (all secondary) 2005-2006 32 (all secondary)

The figures, obtained by BBC Radio Kent under the Freedom of Information Act, show that all 32 exclusions in Medway last year were from secondary schools.

Five years ago, 17 of the 111 children excluded were from primary schools.

KCC's figures show 42 of the 350 excluded children last year were from primary schools.

Simon Decker, spokesman for the National Association of Head Teachers in Kent and Medway, said schools were working much more closely together in Medway's managed moves system.

"If students are at risk of being permanently excluded we avoid that by putting them on an agreed transfer to another school for four to five weeks.

"If that doesn't work then permanent exclusion goes ahead - so it's a last chance, and a change of scene often helps."

He said the system needed careful management to ensure no schools received unfair numbers of disruptive children.

KENT EXCLUSIONS 2001-2002 277 (240 secondary, 37 primary) 2002-2003 350 (310 secondary, 40 primary) 2003-2004 349 (306 secondary, 43 primary) 2004-2005 353 (301 secondary, 52 primary 2005-2006 350 (308 secondary, 42 primary)

Sally Williamson, head of KCC's attendance and behaviour service, said it had piloted managed moves in two clusters of schools, one of them in Gravesend.

"We saw a 31% reduction in permanent exclusions in that cluster last year," she said.

"We are looking at rolling that out across the county because we can see it having a positive impact."

Peter Read, an independent education advisor in Kent, said he believed Medway was on the right path.

"I have listened to two Medway head teachers and the authority," he said,

"They are working together in a way that Kent, as a large and disparate authority with many different types of schools, is unable to do at present."