One pupil in ten excluded in Dundee

Published on Friday 27 January 2012 00:00

SCHOOLS across Scotland are taking wildly different approaches to unruly pupils according to figures which show a huge variation in exclusion rates across different local authorities.

The statistics from the Scottish Government also detail the range of reasons for banning children from lessons and include offences as serious as attacks on teachers, stalking and drug abuse.

Schools in Dundee excluded more than 1,800 pupils last year, equivalent of 107 per 1,000 children, a rate which is two and half times the national average.

Meanwhile, more than a third of the 60 pupils permanently excluded last year were from schools in Edinburgh. Across the country, schools are excluding at an average rate of 40 per 1,000 pupils. In Edinburgh the rate is 35 and in Glasgow 53.

The number of exclusions from Scottish schools has continued to fall, with a total of 26,844 pupils excluded in 2010/11, compared with 30,211 in 2009/10.

In 99 per cent of cases, the exclusion is for a fixed period of time, with the pupil expected to return to their original school.

However, a small number of cases involve children being “removed from the register”, meaning the pupil is permanently excluded from their school and must be educated elsewhere.

Of 60 such cases last year, more than a third were in Edinburgh, where schools permanently removed 21 pupils. In contrast, the vast majority of Scotland’s 32 councils did not remove any pupils from the register, according to the figures.

The statistics also reveal that while persistent disobedience and verbal abuse of staff were the most common reasons for exclusion, small numbers of pupils had been banned from class for offences including indecent exposure, defamation, substance misuse and stalking. More than 1,100 exclusion cases related to physical attacks on teachers, and there were more than 100 cases where teachers had been attacked with a weapon.

Ann Ballinger, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, said councils needed to take a more “consistent approach” to exclusions, highlighting one case in the west of Scotland where a school refused to exclude a pupil, despite 90 per cent of teacher’s signing a letter calling for that to happen.

She said: “I can’t believe children in Dundee are more badly behaved than anywhere else in the country, it’s just perhaps that schools elsewhere are willing to tolerate more.”

Councillor Liz Fordyce, Dundee City Council’s education convener, said that overall, the number of exclusions had fallen between 2009/10 and 2010/11.

She said: “Exclusion is one of a range of measures that is used to manage unacceptable behaviour in our schools. We want to try to ensure that the important work of learning and teaching can continue without disruption.”

Edinburgh’s education leader, Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, said removed children received “tailored support”, such as lessons at an outreach centre or access to work experience.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “The drop [in exclusions] is the result of a concerted effort by schools and local authorities, supported by the government to work with children and young people most at risk of exclusion and keep them included, engaged and involved in their education.”

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