Make a school exclusion referral

We know that it sometimes becomes necessary to exclude a child from school. You can use this page to find out about the process you should be following when looking to exclude a child.

Follow the process below to make your exclusion referral. Select any stage to find out more about what's involved.

1. Step 1:

   Before attempting to exclude a child, it is vital to make all reasonable efforts to keep that child in school. You will need to make a referral to our Education Inclusion Co-ordinator before considering exclusion. They can provide support, guidance and practical help on keeping a child in school.

2. Step 2:

   You must gather evidence relating to the matter at hand. You need to ensure you have covered the steps below.

   Give the reason for investigation

   Make sure you have documented why the incident should be investigated. If there are any safeguarding concerns, then you must contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead for your school.

   Gather statements from the child or young person

   You need to obtain witness statements from the children or young people involved in, or witness to, the incident. When taking the statements you must:

   • ensure statements are taken independently
   • take care not to ask leading questions
   • ensure the statement is signed by the child or young person
   • read the statement back to the child or young person to confirm that it is correct
   • provide the child or young person with a copy of their statement
   • ensure that the statement is recorded on the relevant system

   Gather statements from staff or relevant adult witnesses

   You need to obtain witness statements from the staff or adults involved in, or witness to, the incident. When taking the statements you must:

   • ensure statements are taken independently using factual language
   • take care not to ask leading questions
   • ensure the statement is signed by the witness
   • read the statement back to the witness to confirm that it is correct
   • provide the witness with a copy of their statement
   • ensure that the statement is recorded on the relevant system
   • complete the appropriate CPOMS/sleuth/SIMS/MIS incident report

    

   View and retain any other evidence

   You will need to review any CCTV footage, obtaining a copy of any footage that is relevant to the incident. You must appropriately retain any evidence, in line with your school's guidance on when (or whether) to call the police.

3. Step 3:

   Pastoral or Designated Safeguarding Leads will need to review all of the evidence. You will need to establish and summarise whether the statements corroborate, on the balance of probability, the school's view of the incident.

   As part of reviewing the evidence, you will need to decide:

   • how the incident contravenes the school’s behaviour policy
   • whether it is possible that unconscious bias has affected any of the decision-making process
   • what the 'normal' sanctions would be for the exhibited behaviour, without taking into account additional factors such as SEND/SEMH/ACES

4. Step 4:

   Pastoral leads, Designated Safeguarding Leads, or the SENDCo should give consideration to the context of the incident, and any contributing extenuating factors, such as the following concerns.

   Concerns about attendance or behaviour

   You need to consider whether the child or young person has:

   • been referred for support and raised as a concern at the Behaviour and Attendance Panel
   • experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

   Concerns about health and wellbeing

   You should consider the child or young person's health and wellbeing. You need to ensure that you understand whether a change in medication could have influenced their behaviour.

   You should also establish whether the child or young person has a Behaviour Support Plan. If they do, you need to:

   • explain how you have taken this into consideration, when dealing with the incident
   • outline all the support that was available at the time of the incident
   • provide a Support Plan that shows what processes and support are already in place. If there is no plan in place, then consider using one before resorting to an exclusion

   If there is evidence of the graduated response, and implementation of an Assess Plan Do Review, then you should refer to this.

   Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

   If the child or young person has SEND, then you need to:

   • explain the support they are entitled to, referring to the SEND Support Plan
   • indicate whether they were receiving this support at the time of the incident

   Warning If there is enough evidence to request an EHC Needs Assessment, then you should take this step, prior to exclusion

   If the child already has an EHCP, then you should hold an emergency annual review prior to exclusion. If this has already happened, then you should refer to it.

   The child or young person should also have a referral to any appropriate external agencies as a result of their needs. You must make sure to state any of these referrals.

   Other considerations

   You should also be considering the following as part of your review of extenuating circumstances:

   • whether the child or young person has a Contextual Risk Assessment. If they don't, you should consider this step before exclusion.
   • if the child is looked after by the local authority, or has a Child in Need (CIN) or Child Protection (CP) plan. If they do, you should contact their social worker, and consider contacting the Virtual School head for advice
   • whether staff were following the correct school procedures at the time of the incident. If they weren't, then you should consider de-escalation techniques and TEAM teach
   • whether it would be possible to put in place an alternative provision or new interventions, to avoid suspension or permanent exclusion

   Mitigating factors

   You must consider whether there are any mitigating factors for the behaviour that has been exhibited. You must also consider whether the intervention or education the child or young person was receiving at the time of the incident was meeting their needs. You should also identify any intervention or action that was missing that could have prevented exclusion.

5. Step 5:

   The first step to considering exclusion is to review all the evidence gathered in steps 1 to 4 above. You then need to think about:

   • whether suspending the child or young person will increase safeguarding concerns
   • the child or young person's welfare and home situation

   Any decision to issue a suspension or permanent exclusion has to meet a two-part test. Both parts must be met.

   1. There has been a serious breach, or persistent breaches, of the school's Behaviour Policy.
   2. Allowing the child or young person to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of others in the school.

   Make your referral

   Based on all the available evidence you need to decide what the outcome should be for the child or young person. You must establish how to communicate this to the child or young person and their parent or carer.

   The Headteacher also needs to confirm that they are happy that:

   • the exclusion is lawful, legally fair, and procedurally correct
   • the school has met the child or young person's needs with regard to provision

   If you are satisfied that some kind of exclusion is appropriate, you should make a referral to our Exclusion team. The person making the referral should be the Pastoral or Designated Safeguarding Lead at the child's school.

6. Step 6:

   Designation

   You need to document the category of the exclusion. There are five categories:

   • Suspension which does not bring the child or young person’s total number of days of exclusion to more than 5 in a long term
   • Suspension which brings the child or young person’s total number of school days of exclusion to between 5 and 15 days in a long term
   • Suspension which brings the child or young person’s total number of school days of exclusion to more than 15 in a long term
   • Exclusion which would result in a child or young person missing a public examination or national curriculum test
   • Permanent exclusion

   Notify the child or young person and their parent or carer

   To notify the child or young person and their parent or carer, you need to use the correct letter template from our downloadable resources on The Hub to match the category of exclusion. If the exclusion would result in a child or young person missing a public examination or national curriculum test, you must state this clearly in the letter.

   Notify the local authority and board of governors

   You must notify the local authority and board of governors of any:

   • permanent exclusion (including where a fixed-period exclusion is followed by a decision to permanently exclude the child or young person)
   • exclusion which would result in the child or young person being excluded for a total of more than five school days (or more than ten lunchtimes) in a term
   • exclusion which would result in the child or young person missing a public examination or national curriculum test

   You must complete the relevant notification form, upload it to the Globalscape exclusion folder and email exclusions@bathnes.gov.uk to notify the local authority of the exclusion. If the child or young person is from out of county, then you must notify the relevant local authority.

   There are separate notification forms for temporary suspenion and permanent exclusion in our downloadable resources on The Hub.

   You must also send a copy of the exclusion letter to all relevant parties.

   Next steps

   You must ensure that teachers provide enough work for the first five days of the exclusion. You must also make sure to update your management information system with the exclusion details.

   Permanent exclusions

   You need to complete a Single Point of Access form. Send this, with all supporting documents, via Globalscape and email eotas@bathnes.gov.uk.

   You must also convene a Governors' Disciplinary Committee (GDC) meeting at a time convenient to all parties within 15 school days. You will need to collate all of the evidence into a pack and send it to all parties no later than 5 days before the GDC meeting.

   You must take care to ensure that the child or young person's voice is heard and encouraged at all phases of the exclusion process.

7. Step 7:

   Notify people of the outcome

   You need to notify us of the outcome of the GDC. You can do this using the notification form from The Hub, which you should then upload to Globalscape. You must also email exclusions@bathnes.gov.uk

   Re-integration

   If you are planning on re-integrating the child or young person into the school environment, then there are a number of steps you will need to follow:

   • Agree a date for re-integration
   • Hold a re-integration meeting
   • Identify any additional provisions or assessments that need to be in place for the child or young person's re-integration into the school environment

   Independent Review Panel

   In the event of the GDC resulting in a permanent exclusion, then you need to determine the deadline for the parent or carer of the child or young person to request an Independent Review Panel (IRP).

   You must complete the notification form, upload it to Globalscape, and email exclusions@bathnes.gov.uk.

   You must also notify the local authority of the outcome of the GDC meeting, following an IRP. There is a template you can complete on The Hub, and you must upload this to Globalscape, and send an email to exclusions@bathnes.gov.uk.

   Warning The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 mean that you must not remove the child or young person from the roll until the exclusion process is complete