I appeared on Vanessa Feltz’s Talk TV on 15th April 2024 talking about this issue, because a recent report shows that children who are excluded at primary school are more likely to achieve badly in their GCSEs than their peers.

To sum up what I said, I believe there are four main reasons why children are excluded from school.

1. Children from challenging backgrounds really struggle to fit in to the institutional structures of school. Their home lives are not taken into account by the school system, and much of what they know, ‘their funds of knowledge’, is not drawn upon to develop them as learners.
2. The curriculum could be more engaging for these children: the current vogue for teaching to the test, and very ‘desk-bound’ educational activities is counter-productive for many children, most of whom behave but are bored and disengaged, but a small minority play up and get excluded.
3. Lack of resources: the cutting of support staff, Educational Welfare Officers, social workers from schools means that challenging children don’t get the support they need.
4. Structural issues: economic problems create problems in school. If families are struggling to make ends meet, then misbehaviour and disengagement from school is much more likely.

For more, do read this excellent BERA blog on school exclusions and the Action for Children report already mentioned.