Preston Tops Lancashire Exclusion Tables

Permanent school exclusion rates are falling across the country but in Preston they have increased by 20 percent.

A report by Lancashire County Council shows that Preston has the highest rates of permanent exclusion in both primary and secondary schools in the whole of Lancashire.

County Cllr, Vali Patel, who is the cabinet member for schools, said: “Any exclusion is too high from my point of view. I would like to see the numbers down to zero but you have to be realistic.”

Lack of Discipline

Conservatives think that a lack of discipline is the underlying issue. In a recent report by the Tories teachers’ lack of power to discipline problem students was said to be a large part of the problem. The report criticised current legislation including the part that “strongly advises” teachers not to search children who are likely to resist, but to call the police instead, saying that this undermines the teachers’ authority.

Cllr Patel agreed that the government should address exclusions, he said: “The government needs to understand that exclusion is a social problem it is not just a problem in schools. It is much broader and society, community and family all need to be part of the solution.”

Exclusion is mainly a problem in secondary schools and throughout the UK temporary exclusions, commonly known as suspension, have risen by nearly a fifth in two years.

Getting Younger

According to Jeannette Smith*, a science teacher at a secondary school in Bolton, there are a lot of children at her school who have violent and aggressive behaviour and they seem to be getting younger: “Now even the 11 and 12 years are getting excluded which is very worrying.

“There are a lot of things going on in these children’s backgrounds and they struggle with the school structure. All of a sudden they’ve got to follow certain rules and a lot of them can’t deal with that because they don’t have rules at home,” she said.

Understanding the Reason for Exclusion

Dr Pamela Qualter, director of the Learning and Teaching Research unit at the University of Central Lancashire, said that excluding children does not address the underlying reason that leads to their removal from mainstream education.

“I think we give up on children too soon. We fail to understand why some children engage in serious, problematic behaviour that leads to their exclusion. I really think that in the education system we lack empathy. We are far too quick to exclude individuals,” she said.

Dr Qualter continued that the support put in place after a child has been excluded often works well, but believes that there is no reason that these measures can’t be applied while a child is still in mainstream education, which would also address the rates of exclusion.

In the video Dr Qualter discusses how the increasing exclusion rates should be addressed.

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*Name changed upon request.

Exclusion- A Look Beneath the Surface

Worryingly two thirds of teachers have been verbally or physically assaulted in the last year according to a survey by the University of Lancaster.

Violent and aggressive behaviour is increasingly part of everyday life in schools and this is reflected by current exclusion rates.

This graph shows a geographical breakdown of exclusion rates in Lancashire.

A report by the Conservatives criticised the current methods used to deal with violent children. Rules state that teachers can physically restrain a child only if the action “constitutes a proportionate punishment in the circumstances of the case”.

Teachers Feel Powerless

There is little agreement of the definition of the word “proportionate,” which has left most teachers feeling powerless to deal with aggressive children as they are scared of the legal repercussions.

Jeanette Smith*, a secondary school teacher from Bolton, said: “Most classroom teachers would never consider restraining a child because you’re putting yourself in a very difficult position legally. Usually the advice is that under no circumstances do you get involved in that way.”

The use of physical restraint is widely opposed as it does not address the root of the problem that is causing children to lash out. Dr Pamela Qualter, senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, said: “Physical restraint really doesn’t address the problem and it doesn’t help at all in the long term.”

Bad Behaviour is a Result of a Bad Home Life

Dr Qualter said that the underlying issue behind aggressive behaviour is often severe anxieties and worries that children have about their lives and about the way they are supposed to behave in certain situations.

Mrs Smith supports this view point: “The kids nowadays can’t deal with things because there is so much stress on them from their home lives that they can just fly off the handle at tiny things.

“Classroom teachers don’t normally know anything about a child’s background but if you do hear about them you can understand why they can’t cope because some of them are just appalling.”

Mrs Smith continued that if teachers knew more about certain pupil’s background they would be in a better position to deal with them: “It would allow us to help and at least be more sympathetic, but without that information you just have to treat everybody the same.”

Preston’s cabinet member for schools, Vali Patel said: “A child’s home life is the biggest factor contributing to their state of mind... A dedicated teacher would try and find out the full information about a child’s home life and deal with them accordingly. That would be the best way forward.”

Empowerment

Last year teachers were given more powers to control children. They are now legally allowed to keep a child for a detention if the child has been given 24 hours notice: “Until last year if a kid didn’t do a detention there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. The new powers have made a big difference because the kids now know that they can’t just do whatever they want with no repercussions,” said Mrs Smith.

Similarly, teachers are now being trained to legally restrain violent children, earning teachers a lot more respect. Mrs Smith said that children know they can’t walk all over the teachers like they did before because now they know that certain teachers are allowed to restrain them if necessary and there is nothing they can do about it.

Restraint Will Make the Problem Worse

The issue of restraining children provokes many different opinions and Mr Les Turner, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers in Lancashire thinks that it should not be used as it does not address the reason for a child’s bad behaviour.

Mr Turner thinks that it can actually make the problem worse: “I don’t think that restraining children is a solution to the problem. In many cases restraint can inflame a situation and cause the problem to escalate out of control rather than bring an end to it.”

Cllr Patel said: “We have come far in removing the possibility of exclusion but there is still a long way to go. We need to look for a long term solution to misbehaviour, and deal with it at a very early age. We should be starting at the root of the problem and working with the families.”

*Name changed upon request.

Picture courtesy of Flickr

The Lasting Effect of Exclusion

Exclusions are a regular part of primary and secondary school life and there is much debate surrounding the effect that it has on those who are excluded.

It is thought by some that the behaviour that leads to a child being excluded is often part of a broader issue, which is largely a child’s life at home.

County Cllr Vali Patel agrees with this view point: “Some children come to school with all sorts of other problems from their home lives and they’re just not in a learning mood.”

School Exclusion Leads to Social Exclusion

A local government study has highlighted that children and young people who are not in education as a result of permanent exclusion are a greater risk of a lifetime of social exclusion.

Social exclusion was defined by the government as:

“A shorthand term for what can happen when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, unfair discrimination, poor housing, high crime, bad health and family breakdown”.

We Should Talk About Emotions

Dr Pamela Qualter, from the University of Central Lancashire, has conducted research in this area and agrees that there is a link between school and social exclusion, but says the link comes from behaviour that is learnt at home: “There is lots of research to say that talk about emotions in the home by mum and dad is really key to understanding about emotional relationships which help us to interact with each other.”

Dr Qualter said that those who are excluded from schools and those who are socially excluded lack these emotional skills, and she calls this Emotional Intelligence (EI). Deficient EI means that certain emotions that allow people to interact adequately with others are not present.

Dr Qualter discusses this theory further in the video.

Picture courtesy of Google Images.

Welcome to the Blog

Hello,

Welcome to my blog. I have set this blog up in the hope of dragging myself into to the unknown world of digital journalism.

My name is Bethany Taylor and I am training as a newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.

With this blog I will look at issues of education in Preston, specifically within the council ward of College.

I am just finding my feet in this forum, so be gentle.

Any information, comments, advice you can give me about this area will be welcomed with open arms.

Thank you.... Enjoy!