Permanent Exclusion - advice for a letter please

[MumnMore]

Hi all,

My son was permanently excluded.

We went to an Independent Review Panel and they decided the decision needed to go back to governors as they didn’t agree with it. The school still refused to change their minds.

Currently the LA want him to go to a PRU but he feels uncomfortable there and the work was a breeze for him. He hates having casual chats with staff during learning time.

I want to apply for another local school (most are full in my area) but this one has space.

Can someone help me write a letter to the head asking him to give my son a chance. I feel if I apply through admissions it’ll be refused straight away.

Or could someone help me with what to put in it?

My son is Y11 and it’s his final chance. He’s a grade 7 student but I don’t think he’ll achieve anywhere near this without input from valuable teachers at school.

I have a tutor for him for Maths but I can’t afford all the sessions he needs.

Any help would be amazing and appreciated.

Thank you for reading.

If there is space they will accept him.

Why was he excluded?

Hi, how about getting your son writing a letter as well, how he would like another chance he has learnt from what ever reason he was pex'd etc also even if school does decline you can appeal and go through the fair access team to see if declining space was fair. Good luck

Is your son in agreement with this and boundaries and expectations of school?

Currently the LA want him to go to a PRU but he feels uncomfortable there and the work was a breeze for him. He hates having casual chats with staff during learning time.

Well that's just too bad. It'll be a lesson that he can't have things his own way all the time.

Why was he excluded?

Just need to be aware of one proviso in the 2021 Admissions Code - even assuming that thr OP's DS has only been permanently excluded this one time, a school can object to an applicant, albeit only in certain circumstances, even if there is a place available in the year group. The parent retains the normal right of appeal in this case, though.

(Just mentioning this because schools which are regularly undersubscribed may have more than their 'fair share' of 'difficult' pupils, who often 'jump ship' from their original school, where they are having issues that unfortunately are nor always not of their own making, if you see what I mean).

As an aside, thete are always a lot of respondents on these threads smugly making it clear that they believe excluded pupils are never DC just like their own. Granted, some DC do just turn out to be right little bar stewards 99% of their own volition, but there are always cases where it is very much a a case of there but for the grace of God...

DC doesn't "like have chats'...oh well! Why was he/she excluded?

Hi, I'd suggest asking MN to change your thread heading so that it has Permanent Exclusion in it. This will hopefully mean that you receive replies and support from people with extensive experience in this area xx

Have you visited this PRU? I have recently worked in one and it was fantastic. I loved being there and the staff took a totally different approach because class sizes are so small, everything is personalised and the staff are usually choosing to be there because they want to work with more difficult kids. In mainstream a lot of staff are under so much results pressure they just don’t have the time to figure out what’s happening in the world of the “difficult” kid.
In year 11 I would be inclined to get him into any school that will take him as quickly as possible.
missing a few weeks now to appeal will have a huge detriment.

He’s more or less done this. He wrote a letter to the original Headteacher and that was off his own back. I will get him to do another. Thank you

Yes absolutely.
He is absolutely gutted he lost his place at school and is desperate to achieve his target grades of 7s and 8s.

These are the types of comments I said I’d ignore. “Oh well”? You have no idea of his circumstance. It’s very easy to judge and it’s scary that parents do this so brazenly. No need for you to reply.

This is a very unusual comment to make. What makes you think he has sailed through life thinking he can get his own way all the time? Such a pointless comment. 🙄

What was he exlcuded for? That will make a huge difference to the advice / likely outcome.

Thanks for this.
I’d never criticise a PRU because i think they are brilliant generally.
Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work for him because the lack of structure and the unexpected last minute changes really affect him.
I completely agree that he needs to get into a school quickly for this last year.

Why won't you tell us why he was excluded? Was it violence/ sexual assault?

Strangers can't really answer your question without more detail as obviously this would affect how the letter was written.

Given your refusal to say why he was excluded I'm guessing it was for something pretty serious. You'd be better off trying to improve whatever behaviour led to his exclusion than trying to get back into another mainstream school.

I think it depends why he was excluded?

Can he say that he will not repeat the behaviour? Was it a risk to other people?

Is your son diagnosed with ASD? Or do you suspect it? It's interesting that you are commenting on last minute change as a barrier for him. It would be really useful for the school (whether PRU or another) to know if there is a reason why the every day fluctuations in schedules are problematic for him.

Hi OP, the problem is that no secondary wants to take a year 11 student even those who havnt been PEX. This is because past experience suggests that the student will achieve poor gcse results and bring their statistics down. Schools are judged publicly and harshly for these results.
There is no guarantee your son will have covered all the work other year 11s have done even if, and this is not likely , his old school and the pru and the new school all do the same exam board. So your son even without his pex is not an attractive proposition.
I'm sorry to be blunt and of course I don't know your son, and as a human being personally I think he should have another chance. I do know secondary schools though and the is how they approach this issue.
It might be that the head of the school you want to approach will be persuaded by you and be impressed by your son's genuine remorse. It's worth trying. But the reason for the pex will matter.
Have a plan b, he may need to do some GCSEs at the pru then retake at FE college.