School exclusions

More than 2000 school days were lost by pupils in South Lanarkshire who were excluded from lessons last year.

Figures released under freedom of information laws revealed 577 pupils were excluded from schools across the region in the 2018-19 school year for a total of 2217 days.

South Lanarkshire Council have said excluding a pupil is a “last resort” as they can “miss out on important educational experiences”.

There were more than 30 different reasons for exclusion, ranging from damage to school property (43 instances) and general or persistent disobedience (157) to fire raising (3) and substance abuse (21).

Physical assault with no weapon against staff (29) was the most common reason among primary school pupils, while more high school pupils were excluded for verbal abuse of staff (143) than any other reason.

On two occasions a high school pupil was excluded for the threat of sexual violence against another pupil.

More pupils were excluded from two high schools – 73 from Larkhall Academy and 68 from Calderside Academy – than from all of the area’s primary schools combined.

Just 65 children were excluded from 38 of the 128 primary schools in South Lanarkshire while seven students were excluded from the council’s additional support needs schools.

In total, 505 high school pupils were excluded and, at the bottom end of the scale, only six pupils were excluded from Biggar High School, 12 from Strathaven Academy and 13 from Uddingston Grammar School.

A spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council said: “School exclusion should only be used as a ‘last resort’.

“The council has an operating procedure which provides guidance for all schools and establishments.

“It is based on the current guidance around exclusions that was published by the Scottish Government in 2019.

“The operating procedure is called ‘Preventing and Managing Exclusions’ and the guidance is called ‘Included, Engaged and Involved part 2’.

“In South Lanarkshire, in 2018/19, the number of exclusion incidents per 1000 pupils (21.2) sits favourably against the national rate of 21.6 with 98.7 per cent of learners continuing to be involved in school, which reflects the trend towards looking at alternative options to exclusion.”