Norfolk teacher says "decent and sensible rules" are key to reducing pupil exclusions
The latest Government figures showed the number of suspensions reached a record in England in 2022/23
A teacher in Norfolk is telling us that "decent and sensible rules" for pupils are key to bringing down the number of suspensions and exclusions from schools across England.
It's as national research estimates that number of pupils being taken out of school because of bad behaviour has risen by more than a fifth since 2023.
"They repeated the same behaviour"
Mark Burns is also from the NASUWT teachers union. He says those who are taken out of learning can catch up on what they've missed: "If these students come back in with a positive attitude and are 2-3 weeks behind, they can make up a majority of the grounds they have lost. But that requires the students wanting to do that, it requires more support from parents and their school.
"I believe that the Covid-effect will die out a touch. As these pupils come up through the secondary school they will have been more socialised in Primary-School due to their fuller time them, instead of having their learning disturbed by the Covid period."
Mark went on to tell us why its important to get tough on those who do wrong: "One teacher I know was assaulted for the first time before break-time, where they were hit with a wooden-stick.
"That student was escorted off the school premises, but was allowed back on site on the same day where they repeated the same behaviour."
The report in more detail:
According to a paper by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank and education charity The Difference:
-There was a rise of more than 20% in suspensions and exclusions compared with the same period in the previous year, after the latest Government figures showed the number of suspensions - when a pupil is excluded from a school for a set period of time - reached a record in England in 2022/23.
-32 million days of learning were lost through suspensions and unauthorised absences in the 2022/23 academic year, up from 19 million days in 2018/19 - the last full school year before the pandemic.
What's the Government said on this?
A Department of Education spokesperson said: "The rising number of school suspensions and permanent exclusions are shocking, and show the massive scale of disruptive behaviour that has developed in schools across the country in recent years, harming the life chances of children.
"We are determined to get to grips with the causes of poor behaviour; we've already committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, and ensuring earlier intervention in mainstream schools for pupils with special needs.
"But we know poor behaviour can also be rooted in wider issues, which is why the Government is developing an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty led by a taskforce co-chaired by the Education Secretary so that we can break down the barriers to opportunity."