One in five pupils were excluded from Worksop school

It has been revealed a Worksop school excluded more than 20 per cent of its students during the 2016-17.

Outwood Academy Portland is among a list of schools in England and Wales with 45 secondary schools in England excluding one in five pupils.

This is according to a study which was published by The Guardian.

The investigation found that 20.5 per cent of pupils were given an exclusion during the 2016-17 school year.

The academy gave 255 pupils at least one fixed-term exclusion, with 1,201 exclusions issued across the entire school year.

A fixed period exclusion is where your child is temporarily removed from school.

They can only be removed for up to 45 school days in one school year, even if they’ve changed school.

Katy Bradford, chief operating officer, said: “As many parents in Worksop are aware, Outwood Academy Portland aims to provide a caring and supportive environment in which students can learn without disruption or disorder.

“This is what has led to the exceptional results that Portland students have achieved, year on year, since its conversion to academy, and the judgement by Ofsted that the academy is Outstanding in all areas.

“The data reported by The Guardian relates to the academic year 2016/17 when, unfortunately, there continued to be times when a number of students received fixed term exclusions as a result of not supporting these aims of the academy.

“In September 2016 the academy trust appointed a new CEO who has been determined to review all policies and practices of the trust to see where these can continue to improve.

“As a result a new Behaviour Policy was piloted early this year in a number of our academies and has now been introduced into all academies from September.

“We have seen, and are continuing to see, a dramatic reduction in fixed term exclusions as this policy rolls out.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Any decision to exclude a pupil should be reasonable and fair, and we have made clear to schools that permanent exclusion should only ever be used as a last resort.

“Statutory guidance also states that schools should consider the underlying causes of poor behaviour before excluding a pupil.

“While we know that there has been an increase in exclusions there are still fewer than the peak 10 years ago.

“We have launched an externally led review to look at how exclusions are used and why certain groups are disproportionally affected.”