Over the past few months there have been a growing number of news stories about the levels of exclusions in England’s schools. Figures are hard to come by, but an article in the Guardian in October put the figure for permanent ‘official’ exclusions for 2015-16 at 6,685 (a 40% increase over the past three years).

 

This number is alarming, but the number of ‘unofficial’ exclusions is more alarming still and could be up to five times higher:
 

“A study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank claims these figures mask the true scale of the problem, with pupils forced out of mainstream schools by informal methods that are not captured in national exclusions data.

The report, published on Tuesday, says 48,000 pupils are being educated in the alternative provision (AP) sector, which caters for excluded students, with tens of thousands more leaving school rolls in what appear to be illegal exclusions.”

There are differing views about how to tackle this problem, but before anything can be done we need to have accurate figures. Currently the DfE do not collect or collate the numbers of children who leave the system unofficially.

Our campaign - #TransparencyOnExclusions (we changed the name from #ShineALightOnExclusions to make it more inclusive) - is about opening the lid on this problem and giving us the knowledge we need to understand what is going on and hopefully the tools we need to tackle this unhappy situation.

We are all concerned about children leaving school without an education and we all want to do something about it.

Our proposal is to bring together as many people as possible with an interest in this subject to see what can be done - specialists, teachers, school-leaders, parents, governors, journalists, academics and politicians.

As a starting point we have organised a meeting for Saturday 16th June 2018, from 13:00 - 16:00 at: UNCOMMON, 1 Long Lane, London, SE1 4PG

There are four purposes to this initial meeting:

1. To bring people together who have a concern about the number of exclusions in England’s schools, both official and unofficial.
2. To discuss how the data on exclusions can be better collected, collated, and analysed so the profession has a much clearer picture of what’s going on.  
3. To discuss how missing data can be collected. There is a feeling (justified or unjustified) that there are a lot of missing numbers and we don’t know just how many children are affected.
4. To begin the process of organising an event for the autumn that will raise awareness, bring people together, and hopefully start a system-wide conversation - professional, respectful, and based on evidence.

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We would like to involve as many people from across the educational ‘spectrum’ as possible. Welcoming all those who are interested in the subject of exclusions, whatever their ideological leanings. Of course we all have our own ideas about how to tackle the problem - and many of us feel passionate about it - but this campaign is not about flying a flag for any particular method or solution. It’s about acknowledging there is a problem and agreeing to come together and discuss it professionally.

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If you are concerned about exclusions and would like be involved please sign up to this meeting on Eventbrite. Or if you can’t make the meeting, but would still like to be involved, register your interest here.

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For more information please email - TransparencyOnExclusions@gmail.com

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For more information on the current situation and links to important data read this blog by Anita Kerwin-Nye.

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Tim @imagineinquiry and Jules @JulesDaulby

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