210 expelled, nearly 9,000 suspended
A TOTAL of 210 pupils were permanently excluded from schools in Staffordshire in one school year.
Statistics released by the Department of Education show 49 pupils were expelled from Stoke-ontrent schools between September 2017 and July 2018 – with another 161 kicked out of state-funded schools in the rest of Staffordshire.
Pupils were also suspended for fixed periods nearly 9,000 times over the course of the year - with 3,402 pupils receiving fixed period exclusions in Stoke-on-trent and another 5,565 in Staffordshire.
Of the permanent expulsions a total of 27 were for physical assaults against adults and another 32 for assaults against other pupils – while three were for ‘sexual misconduct’
Here are the figures in more detail for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-trent.
Staffordshire:
Staffordshire had the second highest number of permanent exclusions in the West Midlands in the 2017/18 academic year - according to figures released by the Department of Education. A total of 161 pupils were expelled from state-funded schools in the county over the course of the year – behind only the 226 expulsions in Birmingham.
State-funded secondary schools made up the bulk of the expulsions, with a total of 132 of the permanent expulsions being from there. Another 27 were from state-funded primary schools and two from special schools.
‘Persistent disruptive behaviour’ was by far the most common reason for expulsions - account for 66 of them.
Physical assaults on pupils accounted for 22, with assaults against adults being the reason for 19 expulsions.
Other reasons include drugs/ alcohol (12), verbal abuse/ threatening behaviour against a pupil (10), verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against an adult (7), sexual misconduct (2) and damage (1).
Another 22 of the permanent exclusions were listed as being for ‘other’ reasons.
Staffordshire had the second highest number of permanent exclusions for drugs/alcohol in the West Midlands during that year behind only Warwickshire with 17. It also had the second highest numbers of expulsions for assault against both pupils and adults, behind only Birmingham in both cases.
Pupils also received 5,565 fixedterm exclusions over the course of the school year - again the second highest in the West Midlands after Birmingham.
A total of 4,611 of the fixed-term exclusions were from state-funded secondary schools, 811 from statefunded primary schools and 143 from special schools.
In terms of reasons, ‘Persistent disruptive behaviour’ was the most common reasons for pupils to be suspended, with a total of 1,186 fixed-term exclusions being a result of this.
Verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against adults was the second most common reason for fixed-terms exclusions, with 1,066, followed by 915 suspensions for physical assaults against pupils.
Other reasons included physical assault against adults (261), Verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against pupils (185), drugs and alcohol (98), racist abuse (91), bullying (63), theft (56) and sexual misconduct (26).
The county had the highest number of verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against an adult in the West Midlands - ahead of Birmingham (1,024) and Stoke-ontrent (579).
Staffordshire also had the second highest number of suspensions in the West Midlands for physical assaults against pupils, verbal/ abuse threatening behaviour against pupils, bullying, racist abuse, sexual misconduct, drugs/ alcohol, damage, theft and persistent disruptive behaviour - behind only Birmingham.
Another 1,186 of the fixed-term exclusions were for ‘other’ reasons.
Stoke-on-trent:
A total of 49 pupils were excluded permanently from state-funded schools in Stoke-on-trent over the course of the 2017/18 academic year.
The Department of Education statistics show a vast majority of these were from state-funded secondary schools - which made up a total of 46 of the permanent exclusions.
The other three were from statefunded primary schools and none are recorded from special schools.
‘Persistent disruptive behaviour’ was the most common reason for a pupil to be kicked out of school being listed as the reason for 19 of the expulsions.
Physical assaults against other pupils accounted for eight of the expulsions with assaults against adults covering another five.
Other reasons for permanent exclusion were drugs/alcohol (3), verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against a pupil (3), verbal abuse/ threatening behaviour against an adult (2), theft (1) and ‘sexual misconduct’ (1).
Seven of the reasons were also listed as ‘other.’
There were also a total of 3,402 fixed period exclusions over the period including 2,894 from state-funded secondary schools, 438 from primary schools and 70 from special schools.
Of 866 of these were for ‘persistent disruptive behaviour,’ 625 for physical assault against a pupil and 579 for verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against an adult.
Other reasons included 210 for physical assault against an adult, 170 for verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against a pupil, 52 for damage, 51 for drugs/alcohol, 33 for racist abuse, 25 for theft, 13 for bullying and 11 for sexual misconduct
Another 767 were listed as ‘other.’ Stoke-on-trent had the third highest number of fixed-term exclusions in the West Midlands after only Birmingham (8,469) and Staffordshire (5,565).