There is a rising trend in education. It’s one that no one is celebrating but that, equally, no one seems to be addressing with any significant success.
Since Covid-19, there has been a rising tide of exclusions (both permanent and fixed-term) - almost a million in England in the last academic year.
It is a subject this government talks about preventing, but how?
A different approach
In a climate where schools are judged on outcomes, there is little incentive to stop. For many schools, repeated suspensions lead parents to choose elective home education, quietly placing young people outside league tables and improving school data.
That is not the experience at Patcham High School, a mixed-gender community comprehensive in Brighton with a pupil premium cohort close to the national average and 30 per cent of students on the SEND register.
While our overall outcomes align with national figures, we consistently secure a higher percentage of top grades compared to schools nationwide. Yet one distinction stands out: we have not issued a single exclusion, either permanent or via suspension, since January 2018.
Look at the patterns
This shift began when our headteacher, John McKee, examined the reasons behind our exclusions.
Too often, suspensions were being issued to young people already at high risk of criminal exploitation, involved with social care, working with drug and alcohol services, and facing a cycle in which short-term suspensions frequently escalated towards permanence.
We were not changing behaviour; we were heightening vulnerability and diminishing our capacity to help. John posed a challenge: could we commit to one term without excluding?
It was not easy, and continues to bring challenges. We face behaviours rooted in complex home contexts and generational educational trauma. But, over time, we have developed a moral imperative to seek solutions and restoration over rejection and othering.
The practical solutions
Practically, the process is simple but effective. When an incident occurs, the young person is isolated while we investigate.
On what would be the first day of exclusion elsewhere, they arrive at school and meet our inclusion manager, a fully trained safeguarding practitioner who assesses their wellbeing before they enter our isolation space.
During the day, the young person meets a trusted adult to explore the reasons for their behaviour.
Work is completed, and the goal is always restoration: repairing relationships and reintegration into mainstream lessons as soon as appropriate.
Seeing beyond the behaviour
We noticed within the first year that students who would have been excluded often disclosed instances of serious abuse or harm.
Their behaviour had been a communication of distress. Because we avoided exclusion, these children felt held, heard and safe enough to speak. It led us to ask how many young people nationwide are excluded on the very day they were ready to tell the truth about their circumstances.
Internal alternative provisions are also vital.
The Bridge, our on-site tier 1 provision, ensures education continues for every student, every day. After visiting similar settings, we were determined ours would be learning-led, focused on tangible outcomes and future goals.
Too often, we saw holding pens resembling youth clubs, or punitive spaces where students with low literacy were drowning in inaccessible work. We aimed for a middle ground that balances nurture and rigour.
Our success led to collaboration with the local authority to develop a short-term, 12-week provision for Year 8 and 9 students at risk of exclusion.
We take students from other local schools, adapting a primary-style model to reschool them and rebuild confidence after unsuccessful starts to secondary education.
The non-negotiables
Reducing exclusions depends on non-negotiable factors. We are fortunate to have staff who fully support our stance. It is not just behaviour or safeguarding teams managing high-profile cases, but every member of staff daily forgiving, resolving and rebuilding relationships.
Our expectations remain high but, when mistakes are made, staff at Patcham do not take it personally.
They seek the young person out, engage in dialogue, and welcome them back. Without this collective approach, those needing the most support could not remain part of our community.
Crucially, most students at Patcham High School are unaware of this approach; they continue to thrive through an ambitious, diverse curriculum and rich opportunities for extracurricular success.
Our corridors are calm and our systems are robust. We firmly believe that everyone - not only those experiencing dysregulation - benefits from our inclusive ethos.
Even so, this commitment comes with a significant cost: exclusions are cheaper than interventions. The school must find funds to meet students’ needs from the very first day of what would have been an exclusion.
Without this commitment, the model would be unsustainable and, in the current financial climate, this remains a challenge when attempting to convert senior leaders in other schools.
Yet at Patcham High School, we do not exclude. We believe in keeping young people within our community, however complex their needs. We believe behaviour is communication, not defiance; that belonging, not banishment, changes outcomes.
Mary Reid is assistant headteacher (DSL) at Patcham High School
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