Internal exclusion and being sent home from school for the afternoon

[themiffy]

DC got into trouble at school and the Punishment is to have an exclusion away from the class in the morning then I am expected to collect them before lunch and take them home.this will go on for a couple of days.
i have been advised that the actual course of action should be either class exclusion exclusively within school premises and times, or , an official exclusion correctly authorised and recorded and open to challenge.
By not using the official exclusion route I am denied the opportunity to challenge he thé decision and I do feel uncomfortable that the school are quite happy to turf my child out at lunch time whether I’ll be around to collect them or not.
anyone have any info on if this internal exclusion process is actually lawful, or operating outside the guidance?

or is this all quite normal and I just have to suck it up?

Here are the rules OP -

https://www.gov.uk/school-behaviour-exclusions/exclusions

You can’t send kids home to cool off and not record it as an exclusion. That’s unlawful.

what has your son done?

i did read that guidance , and a few more docs I found, and it doesn’t mention at all what the school are planning.

I have found other websites saying it’s unlawful. It’s not even for cooling off, just being used as a punishment. Except dc is quite happy not to be at school so that’s not quite the impact they anticipate!
the school said it’s for vaping, but apparently the person vaping was later identified by his friends, but punishment still stands. Feels very unjust

Maybe you could speak to your local Education Dept OP?

I'm surprised that there haven't been any teachers coming along to advise you.🤔

If they're sending him home at lunch then that would be exclusion and they need to do the paperwork etc. then you can challenge. If they are not doing paperwork it's informal exclusion and unlawful

This is the suspension and exclusion guidance. It states informal exclusions are unlawful. Unless the school are formally excluding they should not be sending DS home.

No idea, but you need to make your own thread, people on this one will answer the OP. Go to the top and click on the blue arrow beside where it says secondary education and click make new thread.

I'm surprised that there haven't been any teachers coming along to advise you.🤔

Could it be because at 11.20 on a weekday in termtime, teachers are teaching, not surfing Mumsnet?

Because this is the first moment any school staff have had to go to the toilet today?

It's illegal. Tell them they have to do it legally and ensure the suspension has been recorded on his individual record and notified to the local authority.

Unless it takes him over the certain number of days in a term though, the governors cannot direct the head to reverse this, though.

Oh my bad.

I thought they were on strike.

That was yesterday. And I doubt many striking teachers were hanging around mumsnet to answer questions, all the ones I know that were striking were catching up on report writing, assessments and end of term faff!

I'm pretty sure this is an illegal exclusion, and you can challenge this with the school.

https://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/sites/default/files/resources-and-downloads/files/when-will-we-learn-unlawful-exclusions.pdf

This is targeted at parents of children with autism, but I think the letters could be adapted for your scenario.