Struggling pupils ‘unfairly excluded’ in drive to improve exam results

SCHOOLS should face fines for “gaming the system” by unfairly excluding poorly performing students before their exams, the children’s commissioner for England has said.

Anne Longfield said some schools were removing children from their rolls because of pressure to improve their performance. Coram, a charity that campaigns for vulnerable children, said it had heard of hundreds of cases of pupils being unfairly excluded, a process termed “off rolling”.

This involves using informal methods to move children out of a school without recording their departure as an official exclusion. Children with special educational needs and disabilities are thought to be most at risk.

“Some schools are gaming the system by taking children they think won’t get good results off their rolls before they sit their exams,” Ms Longfield told The Observer. “Any school that does this is abandoning their responsibility to children. As a result, very vulnerable children are falling through the gaps in the system, increasing the chances they will go on to lead difficult adult lives.

“I will be calling on the Government to set out what measures it will take, including looking at the possibility of financial penalties for schools, to ensure this practice stops now.”

Richard Oldershaw, senior legal consultant of the Child Law Advice Service, run by Coram, said: “In the past 20 months, CLAS advised about schools exclusions in 1,704 calls.”

The Department for Education said an independent review was under way, adding: “Any decision to exclude should be lawful, reasonable and fair.”