NASUWT comments on pupil exclusion figures
Commenting on the data released today by the Department for Education on permanent and fixed-period exclusions of pupils during 2013-14,Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers union in the UK, said:
“The increase in the number of pupils suspended due to assaulting adults in schools is extremely worrying.
“These figures underline the findings of a recent NASUWT survey in which 16% of teachers said they had been physically assaulted in the last 12 months by a pupil, an increase of 7% on the same survey in 2014.
“The increase in suspensions shows that, quite rightly, schools are not accepting violence against staff. However, there needs to be deeper analysis of why levels of violence are increasing.
“It is simply not good enough for ministers to pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves on the new freedoms given to schools around exclusion.
“There is no good news story here.
“Teachers and other staff are facing the trauma of serious disruption and violence.
“Children and young people are losing their place in mainstream schools and are being placed in a system where specialist staff and provision to meet their needs has been removed or reduced as a result of government cuts.”
