Over 2,000 students were suspended on the Isle of Wight in the 2023/24 school year, according to figures from the Department of Education.
The new data reveals that an astonishing 1 in 7 students missed time at school due to disciplinary issues.
Peter Shreeve, Assistant District Secretary of the National Education Union, has commented on the figures, claiming there is a long-term crisis in school discipline and pupil support.
The Union representative has said:
“What can be worse than the suspension and permanent exclusion figures focused on the autumn term 2023? I felt they reflected a ‘tsunami of suspensions and exclusions’.
“But a tsunami lasts a couple of days: this educational tsunami continued throughout the whole of 2023/24.”
Nationally, suspension rates rose by 21%, reaching almost 1 million suspensions – the equivalent of 1,131 suspensions per 10,000 pupils. Permanent exclusions also climbed to 10,885 cases, a 16% rise, which equates to 13 exclusions per 10,000 pupils.
On the Isle of Wight, there were 2,348 suspensions in 2023/24, the majority in secondary schools. This gives a local suspension rate of 14.2% compared with the national average of 11.31%. A total of 31 permanent exclusions were recorded – 1 in primary and 30 in secondary schools. No exclusions were recorded in special schools.
While these local figures may seem relatively low in total numbers, the NEU notes that both rates are above the regional and national averages.
Across England, the North East had the highest suspension and exclusion rates (18.42 and 0.25 respectively), while London recorded the lowest suspension rate at 5.65. Both London and the South East had the lowest permanent exclusion rate at 0.07.
In comparison, the Isle of Wight’s rates stood at 14.2 for suspensions and 0.19 for permanent exclusions.
Peter Shreeve added:
“Simplified, this is around 1 in 7 pupils suspended.
“More pupils are being suspended, more frequently and for longer creating unintended long-term consequences.
“The austerity cuts of the last few years have shown overstretched and under-supported schools cannot solve this problem alone. If the present Government fails to fully act, this crisis of lost learning will become the present government’s lasting legacy.”
The austerity cuts of the last few years have shown overstretched and under-supported schools cannot solve this problem alone
That is drivel – it is kids that come from homes where there is no discipline and they are allowed to be feral, just like their parents were.
one teacher can look after a hundred well behaved kids – this has nothing to do with austerity, it is everything to do with bad, useless, absent parents.
Whilst your comment is partially true,let’s not fall into the trap of single parent families,on benifets having the only feral children in any schools in UK!!children and n suspension cover all classes for f family parents together,well off parents working full time etc,and yes we do know this first hand,and the fact teachers hands are tied in classrooms,nobody is saying back to the bad old days of belts and caning but a teacher should be allowed to chastise a child without a parent complaining to the school and the teacher being in the wrong!.
“One teacher can look after a hundred well behaved kids” – absolute rubbish. Besides which looking after kids isn’t the job.
‘Across England, the North East had the highest suspension and exclusion rates (18.42 and 0.25 respectively), while London recorded the lowest suspension rate at 5.65. Both London and the South East had the lowest permanent exclusion rate at 0.07’
It also says that nationally, suspension and exclusion rates are up by 21% and 16% respectively.
The areas are directly proportionate to the rate of poverty; the percentages reflect the fact that child poverty now stands at 31% on aggregate.
Poverty is not just money in pockets, it’s resources, housing, choices and disproportionate social exclusion. It’s the likelihood of additional needs going unmet or unidentified, it’s adverse childhood experiences that people like ‘Islander’ who call kids ‘feral’ would have absolutely no idea about, and yes, is it more often than not generational.
It takes a village to raise a child, and we as a society are failing. It’s not something we can ‘discipline’ kids out of. No one is surprised when a hungry, neglected and rejected animal bites, so don’t be surprised when some kids do too.
Excluding, removing and suspending kids will only ever teach them that society devalues them…but then the poverty and lack of chances have already taught them that. The only lesson some have ever learned.
And finally…the cost to the public purse. It would cost less to NOT fail them as kids than it does to support them within the welfare state for the rest of their lives.
Try asking kids what SORT of education they would like, then they are more likely to engage. They won’t engage if it’s not relevant to their life chances. It just becomes an 11 year sentence they will do their best to try to escape from. Then spend the money on that.
Ask the kids what sort of education they want? How bonkers is that? Are you seriously suggesting that they have even the faintest idea what is required to make a success of their lives?