43% RISE IN NUMBER OF PUPILS EXPELLED
EDUCATION ‘SCANDAL’ AS MANCHESTER FIGURES TWICE THE NATIONAL AVERAGE
RISING family poverty, new school performance measures and budget cuts have all been blamed for a sharp spike in expulsions from Manchester’s secondary schools.
The number of children permanently excluded in the year to June 2017 rocketed 43 per cent – more than half of them pupils with special educational needs.
Expulsions had been dropping steadily since 2007, but new figures show that flipped into reverse in 2013.
In 2016/17 they rocketed from 76 to 109, a rise of 43.4pc.
Manchester’s rate is now twice the national average, although numbers have also been rising across the country as a whole.
The most common reason for expulsion was persistent disruptive behaviour, followed by physical assaults on adults. Of those expelled, more than half – 56pc – had special educational needs.
Manchester council is urgently meeting with heads to discuss the rise.
Education figures said the government’s new school performance measure, known as Progress 8, was a key part of the problem.
That now ranks schools according to the progress children make compared to their starting point – but Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell said that effectively punishes secondaries for keeping on pupils with behavioural issues.
Describing the situation as ‘a growing scandal in our education system,’ she added: “These figures in Manchester are a cause for concern.
“Schools are not rewarded for keeping challenging children on their roll, in fact the opposite is the case. Indeed, as schools are increasingly fragmented and the new curriculum’s become narrower and much more academic, this problem is set to get worse.”
Ian Fenn, headteacher at Burnage Academy for Boys, said that due to budget pressures some heads were now expelling children rather than sending them to expensive pupil referral units, where their results may also skew the school’s performance under Progress 8.
“It’s the unintended consequence of government policy for the past five years,” he said.
“This is where it has now ended up.”
Manchester council’s children’s scrutiny committee will discuss the figures at its next meeting.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said any exclusion should be ‘lawful, reasonable and fair’ as well as a ‘last resort.’ Parents can review decisions to exclude pupils, they added.