My son has been permanently excluded

@Da1sycha1n Also, if a pupil is electively home schooled for a period and then an application to a local school is made, even if there's no room at the school they have to take the pupil after 7 weeks of further home schooling. So you could take him out the PRU to 'electively home school', make an application and he'll either get in there and then, or after 7 weeks. This is not widely advertised or known about (possibly for obvious reasons to prevent popular schools being overrun!) but it is a fact.

Really! @prh47bridge can you confirm this? Surely there are caveats?

Loads of other kids used it, just weren't caught. My son won't 'snitch', which is gutting, because arguably she wouldn't be able to exclude 10+ in one go.

Every kid who gets in serious trouble says this. I think that it's important for you to realise that a proportion of teens lie as easily as they breathe and find it incredibly difficult to take responsibility for their actions.

How can you possibly know what happened if your son has not given a full and honest account to the school? If he had then all the students would have been spoken to and they would know what product he was using.

As it is he's refused to co-operate and presumably shown no real remorse. I think the school sounds a little harsh but a high volume of disruption will be a big factor in that- for good reason.

ADHD does not cause children to be naughty. It can really harm achievement (in which case the right meds can be immensely effective) but lots of kids deal with those difficulties without causing damage to the learning of others.

@Da1sycha1n thank you. That is very helpful to know.

@FenceSplinters - please see the advice I've just offered OP. There are solutions honestly!

Did you buy him the nicotine patch?

If he brought in an illegal substance I can absolutely see why he’d be expelled regardless of his previous behaviour, as most schools have a zero tolerance policy for things like that.

However if you brought it for him from a reputable shop she gave it to him as a nicotine patch to stop him smoking - then it would be unfair that he gets in trouble for something that was not his fault.

Also do you know how many teens bring in drugs, alcohol or weapons and then play dumb when they’re found. It would be difficult to believe any pupil in these circumstances unless it was brought from a reputable shop and sold as a nicotine patch.

I've not RTFT so apologies of this has already been mentioned/discounted.

Have you considered your local
college's 14-16 programme? Generally it's for previously home schooled pupils, school refusers, excluded pupils, bullied pupils etc. The college support with at least Maths and English GCSEs and then pupils choose other subjects to study, sometimes even vocational rather than academic. Can thoroughly recommend it, totally transformed my DC when they attended.

My/his situation was a bit similar - an overly harsh punishment that school would just not listen to my DS about. He'd done SOME of what they accused, but not ALL of it, and so he refused to attend the isolation and it all escalated. I became so disillusioned by the schools incompetence TBH.

Best of luck with this OP.

Also, if a pupil is electively home schooled for a period and then an application to a local school is made, even if there's no room at the school they have to take the pupil after 7 weeks of further home schooling. So you could take him out the PRU to 'electively home school', make an application and he'll either get in there and then, or after 7 weeks. This is not widely advertised or known about (possibly for obvious reasons to prevent popular schools being overrun!) but it is a fact.

I have experienced both scenarios I've advised on with my own DC (this one in y8, the one above in y10). They learnt more from YouTube in the 7 weeks than in an entire term at school and this last couple of years have been such a shit show anyway, so please don't be overly worried about what it might mean for his future, exams, apprenticeships etc.

Wishing you both lots of luck and hope it works out - remember it's the school and NOT HIM, and just give him as much support and encouragement as possible.

He's old enough to stay home alone and do online homeschooling. The issue likely is that mom knows well enough he's incredibly poorly behaved and that she can't trust him to do so. She doesn't expect him to behave at school when teachers are babysitting him, there's no way he will behave at home.

Has he got a formal diagnosis of ADHD and is he on medication?

Low level disruption is not ok.
It is not something that should be tolerated.
It is still disrupting the learning of everyone that in the room and incredibly wearing to be around.
Imagine you’re a child trying to tackle a tricky concept or practice a skill with that going on next to you, or the adults focusing on dealing with it instead of supporting you.
If what’s in place to support the pupil isn’t reducing the disruption, then perhaps that isn’t the right environment for them. That may well be a failure in the school’s part but there’s no point in ploughing on through if the child isn’t getting the support they need.
Just please (anyone, not necessarily op) don’t dismiss these behaviours as just low level disruption as it’s still disruption and needs tackling.
Rant over -preparesforonslaught-

OP just to reiterate, if DS has only been permanently excluded once and you make an in year application for your catchment school and they have places they can only refuse if they believe DS may display challenging behaviour, AND compared to other local schools it has a high proportion of pupils with challenging behaviour or who have previously been permanently excluded AND admitting DS would prejudice the provision of efficient education or use of resources. Admissions Code 3.10-3.11.

Also @Expelled123 WTF is doing with tobacco in school anyway? You're very flippant about it. Like you don't think it's that bad.

Op. So you want the exclusion over turned to get him into the local school, but you don’t want it done as a managed move because you fear he will mess about and they will reject him and he will be back in thr pru.

This doesn’t sound like low level behavuoural issues, I’m sorry, if you feel his behaviour is such a risk the new school will also reject him?

You’re very unlikely to get the exclusion overturned. The school obviously wanted rid. I agree with focussing on your son and his needs/problems. Actions have consequences. Hopefully he’s learnt that now.

Managed move no longer an option if P/Excluded. After a period at PRU he should be allocated a school via the local authority Fair Access Protocol. May not be your local one. If not you can Appeal to your preference but the Independent Panel will be made aware of his recent background and usually do not disagree with the FAP allocation.
You want the decision overturning, an Independent Review Panel cannot do this, only the governors can overturn their decision. A Judicial review could, it is time consuming and requires legal representation. Not many lawyers would do this work on a 'pro-bona' basis. Could be expensive!

Why is he using nicotine patches? Why won't he tell the school who else was involved? He could've improved his outcome by being honest but he chose not to. You need to stop trying to make this go away and deal with the actual problems

www.ipsea.org.uk

sossen.org.uk

Also forgot to ask have you got an EHCP in place?

Have you had legal advice from a charity such as IPSEA? Or SOS:SEN?

Sorry you are going through this. If you are worried about a managed move because you think he won't behave himself for 3 months then it is your son's behaviour that is the problem, not the school. The best thing you could do for him IMO is help him to take ownership for his behaviour - right now you are just modelling blaming everyone else for his mistakes and that he won't get through life that way.

Lots of schools have a zero tolerance policy so if a DC does something they know they will be excluded for then they quite simply will be excluded for doing it.

This sounds really harsh. I am really sorry.

But it’s not a court of law. It’s a school.

Once he’s done 8 weeks in the PRU then they will advise normally on if they feel he is suitable for mainstream. There will be some schools prepared to offer a managed move - probably dual registered with the PRU so that if it fails he returns there.

The more you “fight” the PEX and the more you suggest the school is unreasonable and that your son just didn’t want to “snitch” etc, the less responsibility he will take for the situation and the more likely it will happen again.

What @PAFMO said. It is an incredibly onerous process to permanently exclude a student. There must be a litany of issues prior to this that you're passing off as low level.

I'm sorry this has happened. It must feel awful. You can use your energy to support him to turn it round now, rather than fighting the school.

Its consequences, your son offered himself up on a plate and they have taken the kind offer. He may learn a lot from this experience that will help him in future life.