Schools ‘excluding students to keep exam scores high’

PUPILS are being permanently excluded to artificially boost schools’ standings in league tables, a new report has warned.

Schools are “off-rolling” students with poor academic performance before their exams to game the system, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) said.

Freedom of Information requests made to councils in the UK by the RSA found more than 1,200 pupils were admitted to pupil referral units in the first term of Year 11 in 2016-17, the last point before a student’s exam results count towards a school’s performance.

This compared with just 676 in the last term of Year 10 and 763 in the second term of Year 11, suggesting schools are excluding pupils before they count to their exam results. One headteacher told researchers that it was “tempting” to off-roll poor-performing students with behavioural issues due to the huge financial incentives for good performance, while another said positive measures like building relationships with students’ families were not taken into account by Ofsted, so “you do the things that are judged”.

RSA associate director Laura Partridge said: “The numbers of disadvantaged pupils being excluded from school every day is alarming and should prompt urgent action.”

While factors as a result of austerity have played a role, she said, the study shows the system is directly contributing to this rise.

“Pursuing perverse incentives, instead of prioritising quality teacher-pupil relationships, is having a hugely detrimental effect on the life chances of these most vulnerable pupils,” she said.