Tower Hamlets school exclusions rate is one of highest

A total of 1,116 pupils were excluded from the borough’s fifteen state schools, making the area the fifth worst in the inner city region, figures from children’s charity Barnardo’s showed.

The number of school days lost totalled 4,653 – the third highest of the 13 inner boroughs.

But excluding young people is expensive and does little to improve behaviour, the charity is arguing in its study.

Two thirds of students expelled in the school year 2008 - 2009 had already been excluded earlier in the year.

Barnardo’s suggests schools should invest in counselling or family support to change bad behaviour and only exclude pupils as a last resort.

Other methods they have laid out include carrying out full assessments of cases when the same problems are cropping up in schools and among repeat exclusions and making sure absences are properly recorded to prevent unofficial exclusions.

Martin Narey, Barnardo’s chief executive, said: “Disruptive behaviour is frequently a sign of problems outside school and those young people most at risk of exclusion need more adult supervision and support, not less.

“Ejecting them from school and leaving them to their own devices in chaotic homes and risky neighbourhoods is not going to improve anything, it’s just a costly and ineffective dead-end.”