Exclusion legislation

[Nattie]

My 7 year old ds has been excluded. He was unsafe to both teachers and fellow students.

I originally thought it was just for a day but it's indefinitely until we (the parents) have had a meeting with teaching staff - this is complicated to set up.

However, the school is small and independent and I'm not sure that they're following proper procedure, ie notice of exclusion and letters which should be written to us as parents.

Can anybody offer advice or tell me a website I can look at?

thank you

No idea about the procedures but, I would wait to see what the teaching staff have to say before complaining about the procedures. The problem may end up being easier to solve with a little effort on all parts, so not worth the hassle to go to the procedures, at least not yet.

\link{http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/schoollife/ifthingsgowrong/exclusions/}Infor from the dept of education and skills\

I'm not sure how relevant it is for independent schools, as they may have their own rules.

In the first instance I would have a chat with the school ASAP

link

can we ask why?

I'm not disputing the exclusion.

In a nutshell: My ds has had a history, since he was 2, of agression (I shouldn't have gone back to work when he was one, but that's another story........) at school. We moved from London for a quieter home and school life. He doesn't fit into state schools so now he's at a Steiner school. This has had a tremendous positive effect on him but he still has his episodes. I'm too ashamed to actually describe what he did, but he did threaten the safety of the other children and the teacher.

He's been assessed endlessly and I have advice and techniques coming out of my ears.

I know that the teachers were making up their exclusion 'procedure' as they were going along as they've never had to do it before, so I just wanted to know what the process should be.

Independent schools are still subject to the law of the land.

Nattie

In the link that mb posted it says the Education Act 2000 applies to exclusions from "maintained schools" - independent schools don't come under that category. My understanding (having had kids at an independent school)is that independent schools set their own rules and guidelines for behaviour and they can ask any parent to remove a child with the correct period of notice - the relationship between an independent school and the parents of it's pupils is basically a contractual one. If there was any doubt the recent case of a father trying to get his son re-instated into some posh public school (can't remember which one) has set legal precedent. Ironically you have far fewer legal rights in the independent sector! My kids were at a very new school where they were "making it up as they went along" too - it was very frustrating. I hope it all gets sorted out for you.

Nattie what a terrible situation to be in. Silly question maybe but has his hearing been checked? its such a simple thing to muss but children with low hearing are often aggressive.

We've had every test for everything done:

hearing, sight, dyslexia, adhd, aspergers, food intolerance.

He's a phenomenon that nobody can fathom.

He's at a Steiner school which helps a lot.

You might try the Advisory Centre for Eduction . They have an exclusion helpline 020 7704 9822.