With only 3 days left, support Talking-up Scotland's work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method - John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421
Professor John Robertson OBA
The Express today has the above and:
Children as young as 13 are running violent county lines drug gangs across Britain as school exclusions and vanishing “ghost pupils” fuel an explosion in exploitation, an expert has warned. Former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield said youngsters barely into their teens were heading drug networks, controlling supply lines of up to 80 miles, ordering retribution acts and brandishing machetes.
How do school exclusions in Scotland compare?
It’s a shocking contrast.
With 5 to 6 times as many temporary school exclusions and 900 times as many permanent exclusions, per head, than Scotland, England’s schools are in a deep crisis fuelling County Lines gangs and street violence
There were 11 676 temporary and 1 permanent exclusion from Scotland’s school in 2022/2023, the most recent figures.1
Now, I know some don’t want to see comparisons with other parts of the UK. ‘I don’t live in England’, they’ll shout, but I feel you you don’t always know what you’ve got until you see what others have got or have not got.
So, all things being equal with 10 times the population, England might be expected to have around 120 000 temporary exclusions and 10 permanent exclusions?
It had 786 961 and 9 376.2 5 to 6 times as many temporary exclusions and more than 900 times as many permanent exclusions!
In addition to the immediate and obvious consequences of such a phenomenon, what other consequences might there be?
Pupils excluded from school are at a “heightened risk” of being drawn into county lines drugs gangs, an official report warns. Police officers “reported a strong link between school exclusion and becoming a target for county lines criminals”, according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services. 3
Knife crime: Excluded pupils ‘sucked into criminality’ – Theresa May is being warned that a “broken” system of support for troubled and excluded youngsters lies at the heart of a rise in knife crime. Police commissioners and London’s mayor have written to the PM saying pupils, both formally and informally excluded, are being “sucked into criminality”.4
Imagine this was the other way round. Imagine the Scottish media coverage.
Sources:
- https://www.gov.scot/publications/school-exclusion-statistics/
- https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/suspensions-and-permanent-exclusions-in-england/2022-23
- https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/strong-link-between-exclusions-and-drugs-gangs
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47470502
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
but how do Scottish schools avoid so many exclusions? The title is not answered.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They use their skills and their better staffing ratio than England to find solutions other than exclusion.
LikeLiked by 3 people
just offered as marginalia John, it’s entirely appropriate to make clear comparison between us and out (aggressive, colonising) nearest neighbour.
who else wouldn’t benchmark against their neighbours and / or competitors?
how else do we critique our own performance? It’s done in school, work, business and in worldwide economies. Anyone who is not in favour of this has something to hide.
John Lawson.
LikeLiked by 2 people