Council implements new training to tackle soaring school suspension numbers
There was nearly 7,000 suspensions in West Northants secondary schools.
Thousands of children across West Northants were excluded from school in the last academic year, resulting in more than 13,000 days of lost education for the county’s young people.
From July 2023-24, there were 6,905 individual suspensions recorded in schools across the unitary authority.
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has said it is committed to lowering the suspension rate and that it has recruited more specialist staff to support children to remain in school.
The majority of the disciplinary action came from students in years 7 to 11, racking up 5,877 suspensions and 11,526 days of education lost to the school bans.
The top three schools in the county contributed to a quarter of all secondary school suspensions for the year- achieving roughly 1,410 suspensions alone. There are 22 secondary schools across West Northants.
The most common reason for suspensions was noted as ‘disruptive behaviour’.
However, primary-age kids were not exempt from this number. A total of 1,028 suspensions were handed out to pupils under the age of 11 resulting in 1,708 days of lost education.
The authority said that the most common reason for suspensions in primary schools was ‘physical assault against an adult’.
In the same period, 44 secondary-school-aged children were permanently excluded and had to find a new school. A further 14 primary pupils were expelled and had their names removed from the school roll.
Analysis by WNC revealed that at the peak of permanent exclusions in July 2024, four out of 11 students who were removed from school were awaiting an education health and care plan.
The latest national data showed a sharp increase from 578,000 suspensions in 2021/22 to 786,961 suspensions across the country in 2022/23. The number of permanent exclusions also rose by about 44 per cent.
The authority told members at a children, housing and education scrutiny committee last week that it was investing in ‘therapeutic thinking’- a ‘trauma-informed’ approach to behaviour- to reduce the number of pupils at risk of suspension and exclusions.
It said that, so far, there were 65 schools which had undergone the training and that it is open for all to attend.
A WNC spokesperson said: “West Northamptonshire Council are aware of the increase to national rates of suspension and exclusion and are committed to lowering the rate within our authority, as detailed in our SEND and Alternative Provision strategy.
“Although the rates of exclusions and suspensions in West Northants remains below national rates, we have recruited additional staff with expertise to support children to remain in school and we are working more closely with our schools to offer support and work collaboratively in reducing both suspensions and exclusions.”