1 in 12 pupils ‘vanish’ from school registers

50,000 children per year are moved on amid fears that heads ditch anyone who’ll hurt exam results

UP to 50,000 pupils per year are disappearing from school registers amid claims that head teachers are dumping them to improve results.

The illegal practice of ‘off-rolling’ could be more widespread than thought, a report suggests, with about one in 12 children dropping off rolls during their secondary education.

While schools are well within their rights to exclude seriously disruptive pupils, they are not allowed to get rid of children simply because they are performing badly academically.

But campaigners say many heads are pressuring parents to move less able children to other schools or home-school them so that their bad exam results do not affect league table positions.

The report, from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) think-tank, looked at data from the Department of Education.

Each pupil entry showed if they had moved to a new neighbourhood, if they went on to a school with a better Ofsted rating, if they had gone to a special needs school or if they were excluded for being disruptive – all valid reasons for a child leaving the register.

The EPI screened out these entries and, for the remainder, it suspects they were being illegally off-rolled by head teachers.

For the year group who took their GCSEs in 2017 in England, 49,100 pupils (8.1 per cent) were taken off the school roll at least once during their five years at secondary school. This compares with just 7.2 per cent for the year group taking GCSEs in 2014 and 7.8 per cent for the 2011 year group. Jo Hutchinson, report author at the EPI, said: ‘ For the first time, we begin to see the full scale of this problem, having stripped away cases where family decisions have led to school moves.

‘Our estimate is that one in 12 children are being pushed around the system and that this has risen in recent years.’ The report also showed that just six per cent of secondary schools in England – 330 – account for almost a quarter of the total number of unexplained moves in the 2017 year group.

These schools each removed about 30 children from a single year group during their secondary education from 2012 to 2017.

In addition, certain pupils are disproportionately represented among those exiting school rolls. One in three pupils were in the social care system, one in seven were disadvantaged and one in eight were black.

Dr Mary Bousted, from the National Education Union, which sponsored the research, said: ‘The data is shocking. It is urgent that we move beyond the numbers, analyse the real reasons behind these moves and challenge the government policies which are undermining inclusive and highquality education.’

Education regulator Ofsted, however, estimate only about 19,000 children are off-rolled every year.

Paul Whiteman, of the NAHT union, which represents school leaders, said: ‘This report starts to make headway into what is happening across the system.

‘But not all unexplained pupil exits are off-rolling and this report still cannot tell us exactly how widespread bad practice is.’

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘It is against the law to remove pupils on the basis of academic results – any school that does it is breaking the law.

‘We have written to all schools to remind them of the rules on exclusions and Edward Timpson [minister for children] is currently reviewing how schools use them and why some groups of children are more likely to be excluded from school than others.’

‘The data is shocking’