Share out excluded pupils, says Clarke

Education secretary Charles Clarke has warned schools that they
must take on their “fair share” of pupils who have been excluded
for bad behaviour.

Popular schools with full rolls are able to avoid admitting
excluded pupils, which leads to their concentration in “sink”
schools.

“It is important that heads do not have to take more than their
fair share of challenging or excluded pupils simply because they
have places available,” Clarke told a head teachers’ conference
last week.

He urged the creation of local admissions forums to share
hard-to-place pupils between schools and limit the numbers each has
to take.

Other proposals include encouraging schools to pool resources to
deal with challenging behaviour through foundation partnerships and
to give head teachers powers to search pupils for weapons, rather
than having to ask the police.

Earlier this month, schools inspectorate Ofsted reported that only
a third of secondary schools were meeting the needs of pupils with
social and behavioural difficulties.