School Exclusions Down

The number of fixed term and permanent exclusions in Bristol schools has been significantly reduced according to statistics released today (Thursday, 30 July). For the academic year 2007/08 fixed term exclusions fell by well over a third from 4310 in the previous year to 2710 – and, most importantly, those of more than five days was slashed from 302 to just 50. Permanent exclusions dropped from 40 to 30. Currently, no Bristol school holds an Ofsted ‘unsatisfactory’ category for behaviour.

Bristol City Council’s Strategic Director for Children, Young People and Skills Annie Hudson said: “We’ve implemented very robust monitoring of schools so we can pick up on where exclusions might be happening and work with them to look at various strategies for dealing with difficult behaviour.“Exclusion from school is always a last resort.  We are working hard to ensure that schools are well equipped to deal with challenging behaviour such as coaching, one to one mentoring with vulnerable children and discussions in circle time.”A number of primary and secondary schools in Bristol have been taking part in a trial to explore new restorative approaches that can deal with poor behaviour.  The trial will finish next March.

Bedminster Down is a lead practice school in Bristol for the ‘social and emotional aspects of learning’ programme.

Headteacher Marius Frank said:“ If restorative approaches are used early enough, it is possible to help young people change their behaviour. It is not easy but, through inclusion rather than exclusion, we can make young people aware of the impact of their actions, and give them opportunities to restore relationships wherever possible.“We have a highly trained and dedicated staff, as have other schools and academies in Bristol using restorative approaches. At Bedminster Down, we have managed a 60 per cent reduction in fixed term exclusions in three years – and the achievement of our students continues to rise.”The figures have been released by the Department for Children,

Bristol has 94 primary schools, 16 infant and junior schools, 13 secondary schools, seven academies, 14 special schools catering for 45,834 school-age children.  The city has 24 children’s centres for the under-fives and the city council provides and commissions services for families such as early years education, daycare, family support services, youth services and joint arrangements with health professionals including the largest children’s community health service in the country. The independent Bristol Safeguarding Children Board co-ordinates and leads work on child protection and child safety. Approximately 640 children are looked after by the council; the majority of these live with foster carers or in residential care.