One pupil suspended every half-hour

ONE pupil is shown the yellow card every 33 minutes across Oldham’s schools — but the number of suspensions in secondary schools has gone down.

According to figures released yesterday by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) 2,247 pupils were temporarily suspended from schools and a further 60 excluded.

That means 11.5 for each of the 195 school days — or 1.77 every hour —meaning one suspension is handed out every 33 minutes.

Of those, 1,995 suspensions were handed out to secondary schools pupils and 252 to primary school youngsters. Sixty secondary school students were also expelled.

In 2005/6 there were 2,150 suspensions handed out to secondary school pupils — a fall of 7 per cent. Primary suspensions were not recorded.

Oldham Council’s Service Director for Supporting and Extending Learning Jill Beaumont said: “The council and schools are committed to ensuring schools can be positive learning environments where children and young people are able to thrive academically.

To support this aim and to minimise exclusions where this is appropriate, schools have access to a wide range of support strategies offered by the council and its partners including: learning mentors, learning support units, alternative provision, Pupil Referral Units, as well as the behaviour and attendance consultants who are available through the DCSF’s national strategies.”

Across England there were 353,910 secondary school pupils suspended and a further 45,730 primary school children. There were 980 primary school youngsters expelled and 7,280 secondary school pupils.

The DCSF denied that schools were under pressure not to expel pupils but said they were using “short but effective punishments to turn around poor behaviour”.

Children’s Minister Kevin Brennan said: “Good behaviour should be the norm in all schools all of the time. It’s simply not true that behaviour is poor in schools or is deteriorating. That’s not just my view but that of Ofsted.

“Heads are taking shorter, sharper action to improve behaviour to nip problems in the bud, with most suspensions just two or three days.

“While I am very keen to see more intervention and more preventive measures, where behaviour warrants it, heads should not hesitate to permanently exclude pupils. They now have the powers they need to do this.”