15 yr old permanently excluded from school.

[caringdad66]

Looking for advice guys.
Been told it will be 6 weeks before the local authority can place him in another mainstream school.
Therefore for the next 6 weeks they want him to attend our local Pupil referral unit.
Am very wary of sending him here, due to its poor reputation.

Are these places ' schools of crime', or will he be better of going for 6 weeks whilst he awaits his new school placement?

Just to add , he was permanently excluded for assualting another student, who is thankfully not hurt or injured, but didn't deserve what my son did.

Is he Year 10 or 11?

Have to wait 6 weeks for school place because the LA ' fair access ' panel, don't meet again until 7 march.
They decide which mainstream school he is next allocated.

He's year 10, top sets, target grades 7,8 and 9 for GCSES

I'd make a list of things that went wrong and how your ds dealt with them. This will help you, him and new placements understand what support your ds needs.

He was clearly being bullied and either he reported correctly and it wasn't dealt with efficiently or he didn't have knowledge or the confidence to seek support through the correct channels.

Hi- read your further posts.

Please accept my apologises.
I hope it works out for your son.

Thank you

He was excluded for one incident when the other student wasn't hurt? Unlikely TBH.
Can you visit the PRU to form your own informed opinion? I would imagine they are all very different.

Has the exclusion been agreed by the Governors yet? Not condoning violence BUT if it's a one off and IF there was provocation as you describe, then any exclusion needs to be proportionate to the incident so there may be a possibility of challenging it?

Here you are OP:

childlawadvice.org.uk/information-pages/school-exclusion/

It hasn't been agreed by governors yet- I'm assuming they will back the head though

If he's excluded, he can't go out in public places during school hours. I guess you know.

If it was one single incident and he was provoked and didn't actually injure the child then I would be pretty amazed if the permanent exclusion stood.

If it was one single incident and he was provoked and didn't actually injure the child then I would be pretty amazed if the permanent exclusion stood.

This ^

Generally Governors do - but I have encountered 3 occasions (over a number of years) when they have overturned the Head's decision.

One was because of procedural problems and two were because the school's case was evidently unfair. You know your own child - if you think it is unfair and it's a one off - and he doesn't have a history of trouble - then it may be worth fighting it. BUT, often I have seen parents arguing with schools and unfortunately seeming to condone the unforgivable. Does your son need a 'shock' that the PRU followed by a mainstream school will give him and make him change whatever has got him into trouble?

A PRU is likely to offer only a limited range of subjects. We do English Lang/Lit, Maths, Double Science, ICT and an option (vocational or Art), but no humanities or languages. Most students will not be working at those grades. I only teach foundation tier Maths currently, although I would of course cover higher tier topics if we had a student who had been working towards these in mainstream. Good communication between both the old and new school would be essential, and IME, this is often lacking from the referring school.

No words of wisdom but wishing you and your boy well.

That's appreciated.

Good luck. I think some posts here are not very kind. I imagine it's very hard for you. It's not your fault. You probably did everything you could for your son. Sometimes your children aren't all you want them to be. Sometimes children make mistakes. Some make a lot of mistakes and aren't good at learning from them. That's quite tough on them cos they probably didn't choose to be born like that. Some children pick up on stuff quickly and don't make the same mistakes twice others just don't catch on and don't have good self control. There are very few children that are deliberately evil.

Lovely message, thank you

Another agreeing about the proportionate punishment - or father seemingly disproportionate.

Hence my post above about possibly having maybe struggles? Because if that's the case the PRU should and would address those.

If this is a once off fight with no injury after provocation it does seem an extreme reaction. That's not condoning the violence that's looking into the whole situation, what drove it and also looking at the likelihood of it happening again.

If it's an isolated incident I would have thought school could deal with it effectively by heavily punishing the lad for social media event and also homophobia (which publicly questioning his sexuality with the intention of humiliation is) and equally punishing your DS for inappropriate violent reaction with a fixed term exclusion should be sufficient.

I think other posters are right about using your right to appeal (if ds wants to remain there). Don't focus on other behaviour if student as they'll see its condoning your ds' by rather focus on the fact it was a big incident that left ds feeling out of his depth, a deep sense of emotion that he hadn't in countered before, and humiliation and that he reacted out of character. Then say school have resources to support emotional development and also have a responsibility to be teaching students about cyber bullying and effectively responding to it.

Permanent exclusion should be a final resort when all else has failed. A single incident where the other pupil was not injured and where there was clear provocation certainly should not lead to permanent exclusion. Whether you or he wants to continue with the current school after this is another matter. But I would certainly appeal this if it were me.

It really depends on the PRU.

Some are brilliant and create an environment where those who just don’t flourish in the big machine of a school get attention in smaller groups, get a wide range of supplementary support etc.

Others act as gang recruitment agencies.

(I have working contact with a range)

If there is any danger of that I wouldn’t send him anywhere near it,

What lies behind his behaviour? Does he have anger management issues? Was he being bullied? Does he enjoy the learning side of school?

Can you try and overturn the PEX if it is a one off situation? Speak to a parent/pupil support person or someone from SNAP who can help in this process.

Sorry, missed out a chunk of your posts.

I would Appeal the exclusion, look at whether police action is appropriate for what the other student did.

He is clearly a Bright and academic boy. Can you keep him at home, buy tne GCSE course / revision study guides and get him to follow them while he is out of school, might help him keep his confidence up.

I wouldn’t send him to a PRU.

Reading the OPs posts, I'm guessing the assault was pretty serious? A PEX is a last resort and is very expensive - I don't think the head would be considering it lightly.

Definitely appeal OP if you don't think it is warranted, just seems strange as most schools genuinely would only consider it as a last resort. We try all sorts of other arrangements and managed moves before a PEX.