By Professor John Robertson OBA
Today, I just happened to catch Chanel 5‘s Scottish presenter Storm Huntley talking about Primary School suspensions in England and adding, based on her lack of knowledge of what happens in Scotland, the above.
From April 2024:
From the Scotsman, no friend of the SNP Government, on 25 March 2024:
Across Scotland, there were 11,675 cases of temporary exclusion of any length of time, with just one pupil being expelled, as previously revealed by The Scotsman. The figures compare to 39,553 temporary exclusions and 164 permanent in 2007, when the SNP came to power.1
So, with 10 times the population, all things being equally progressive and hopefully not too nasty and socially divisive, England’s schools might be expected to have around 120 000 suspensions and only 10 expulsions or permanent exclusions.
However, based on figures from GOV.UK, in England, there were 511 270 suspensions2, more than 4 times as many pro rata, and 6 143 permanent exclusions3, more than 600 times as many pro rata.
Sources:
- https://www.scotsman.com/education/revealed-which-scottish-schools-had-the-highest-rates-of-pupil-suspension-last-year-4565712#:~:text=Across%20Scotland%2C%20there%20were%2011%2C675,the%20SNP%20came%20to%20power.
- https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/865e5f43-2011-4fe6-79bb-08dc57a81cf8
- https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/01528457-9f8c-4479-79ba-08dc57a81cf8
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brown_(Scottish_activis
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I blame the bloody SNP for not keeping up with englandshire on this one!!!
JB
LikeLiked by 2 people
In Scotland, schools are still under Council control, with regulations about exclusions from school, notification of them, recording of them, rights of appeal, continued educational provision.
Councils also have Social Work Services and these and Education Services have to cooperate. In some Councils the are part of a single department.
If a child is missing from school (including due to formal exclusion) attendance officers would visit the home to seek an explanation and can make arrangements for other services to become involved if required.
If the family cannot be contacted this would be informed to other Councils and the Police and efforts made to trace the family. In most cases, the family is located when they seek to enrol the child in a school in another council.
Consequently, few children in Scotland are lost from the system and almost all receive continuous education.
In England, with the separation of schools in many areas from Councils and the establishment of Academy Trusts, the connection with Social Work and other services is broken and so tracing children who are out of school is more difficult. Exclusions from school are not necessarily reported to Social Services.
Academy Trusts can, to some extent, make their own rules regarding exclusions and this can result in ‘informal exclusions’ – which can mean, in practice, ‘just go away and we will not record it’. (Following the abolition of corporal punishment in Scotland c1981, some schools used the ‘go away and we will not record it’ ruse, but, fairly quickly,it was stopped, not least by schools receiving such children, putting pressure on the recalcitrant schools to stop.)
Alasdair Macdonald.
LikeLike