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The growing proportion of pupils being suspended from primary schools has sparked concern among education leaders about myriad factors driving this rise, including an “increasing complexity of need”.

The latest Department for Education data shows that secondary schools have slowed a post-pandemic surge in suspensions - but this has not been replicated in primaries.

Between 2022-23 - when schools were seeking to recover from the profound impact of the Covid pandemic - and 2023-24, suspensions and permanent exclusions rose to record levels.

However, for 2024-25 indicates that, while the overall rate of suspensions has slowed down nationally, this has been driven by reductions in secondary schools alone.

In 2022-23, the suspension rate in secondary schools in the autumn term was 5.90 per 100 pupils. This increased to 8.19 in 2023-24, but reduced to 7.81 last year. The autumn term suspension rate in primary rose between 2022-23 and 2023-24, from 0.58 per 100 pupils to 0.83.

However, while secondary suspensions fell in the latest data, the rate rose in primary schools: in autumn 2024-25, the primary suspension rate was 0.89 per 100 pupils.

Some 287,306 students were suspended from state-funded secondaries in autumn 2024-25 - a 4 per cent reduction from 300,300 during the same period the year before. However, primary suspensions increased by 6 per cent, from 37,695 to 39,914.

So what is going on? Why have secondary schools seemingly stopped the surge in suspensions while primaries have seen a rise?

Shazia Azhar, headteacher at Spring Grove Junior, Infant and Nursery School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, tells 91���� that “the main reason is possibly because of the push for children with quite complex needs to be included in mainstream education”.

Azhar, whose school is a lead attendance and behaviour hub, stresses that many such children lack the vocabulary to articulate their needs, which sometimes results in violent behaviour.

She says: “When children are suspended or excluded, it’s often because they become dysregulated [because] they can’t communicate a need.”

‘Fewer school-ready pupils’

Dan Woodrow, headteacher at St Gregory CEVC Primary School in Sudbury, Suffolk, says that fewer Reception children now arrive “school ready”.

“They are not as independent, they are not used to being around other children and playing, and they have less patience and resilience,” he says. “If children are less ready and feel overwhelmed and unsafe in their environment, then incidents of poor behaviour will increase.”

In January, early-years charity Kindred Squared released its annual survey, reporting a further decline in children’s school‑readiness, with some Reception staff describing the first term as a “write-off”.

Mark Chatley, CEO of Coppice Primary Partnership - a small trust of three primary schools in Kent, which has seen a “marginal” but “not significant” increase in suspensions - says the DfE data is “really interesting” and could be examined through various lenses.

For example, he also sees a “higher level of need coming into schools” in the early years and Reception. He believes that, overall, there are fewer children in nurseries and pre-schools post-Covid - perhaps due to a decrease in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) funding, as well as the increased cost of living and parents working for inflexible employers.

Children with SEND ‘more vulnerable’

Children become “more vulnerable as they don’t have one-to-one support which they had previously”, Chatley says. This, he adds, can lead to an initial spike in suspensions, which may “decrease over the year” as the children and staff learn to manage the situation.

He also notes that attitudes have been shifting in recent years, with primary leaders now more likely to follow the example of many secondary leaders and suspend a pupil “once the behaviour policy has been exhausted”.

Chatley warns that free school meals (FSM) and education, health and care plan (EHCP) trends in the DfE data - which were again evident in a new round of data yesterday - show that suspended pupils are often “our most vulnerable children”.

He says it is “really important that we don’t necessarily look at this as a homogeneous group”, and that schools should “drill down into their own data and look for causes of the individual behaviours and build support in from there, as opposed to just treating the symptoms of the behaviour which may lead to suspensions”.

Claire Blagden, principal at Castle Academy in Doncaster, South Yorkshire (part of Astrea Academy Trust, which has 19 primaries and nine secondaries), sees primary suspensions and exclusions as “a growing national concern, particularly among pupils eligible for FSM and those with EHCPs”.

But she stresses that “this should not be seen as primary schools being more willing to suspend pupils, but as a reflection of rising and increasingly complex needs in younger children”, adding: “Many pupils are starting school with weaker language, social and emotional regulation skills than before the pandemic, while thresholds for accessing specialist SEND support remain high and capacity limited.”

Ms Blagden’s analysis appears to be borne out by the DfE data: in autumn 2024-25, the suspension rate for pupils with EHCPs in primary schools was 7.60 suspensions per 100 pupils, compared with 3.55 for pupils with SEND support and 0.17 for pupils with no identified needs or disabilities.

However, her primary school has reduced suspensions from 33 in 2023-24 to four so far in 2025-26, thanks to “inclusive, proactive practice - including consistent routines, early identification of SEND, adapting provision to better meet individual needs, and strong collaboration with families and external agencies”.

Developmental delays and dysregulation

School leaders’ concerns about the rise in primary suspensions are echoed by education unions.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, tells 91���� that behavioural issues have increased since Covid but that suspensions remain a last resort.

“Recent statistics suggest a corner may have been turned in secondary schools, which is encouraging,” he says. “However, primary schools continue to face very significant challenges with children who are exhibiting developmental delays and dysregulation, which stem from a range of complex social issues.”

Di’Iasio says “extremely tight” primary school funding has exacerbated these issues.

A spokesperson for the NEU teaching union also cites funding cuts as a factor driving up suspensions in primary schools and making challenging behaviour more common since the pandemic: “There is simply insufficient staffing in our schools, and too many children with SEND needs that are not being appropriately addressed.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, says the rise in primary suspensions more likely reflects an increase in challenging behaviour “rather than any greater propensity among leaders to turn to such sanctions”.

He adds: “While it is hard to pinpoint a single reason for this, leaders see the impact on children’s behaviour and ability to engage when challenges in their lives - be it poverty, mental ill-health, additional needs or issues at home - are not addressed.”

A link between poverty and suspensions is seen in the DfE data: primary pupils eligible for free school meals are suspended at far higher rates.

In autumn 2024‑25, the rate for FSM‑eligible pupils was 2.16 suspensions per 100 pupils, compared with just 0.48 for FSM-ineligible pupils.

‘Some great work in secondary schools’

However, some experts point to other possible factors.

Stephanie King, an education lecturer and former teacher at the University of Derby, tells 91����: “There has been some great work done in secondary schools to create more flexible and relational approaches and support.

“However, there is also an increased use of alternative provision and movement within multi-academy trusts, which avoids making official exclusions but still leaves young people functionally excluded from school.”

King says this movement “obscures the figures”.

John Jerrim, professor of education and social statistics at , says: “My hunch is that the rise [in primary suspensions] could well be linked to Covid lockdowns.

“I presume that it’s mainly older primary kids getting suspended [who] would have been Year 1 or 2 when the lockdowns happened. That was probably a quite major disruption to their understanding of school rules.”

New analysis from education charity indicates that younger primary pupils are also getting suspended in higher numbers.

The charity finds that the number of five‑ and six‑year‑olds suspended at least six times in a single term has reached record levels, rising by 69 per cent in two years.

For Tom Bennett, an attendance and behaviour ambassador for the DfE, “it’s the rise in behaviours that lead to suspensions and exclusions that we should concentrate on”. These include “poorer school readiness, delayed speech and self-regulation, rising SEND need, family stress or more complex behavioural challenges arriving at the school gate”.

He adds that schools are often managing the “consequences of broader social trends”, such as the long-term effects of policies during the pandemic.

As a primary MAT CEO, Chatley stresses that it is not clear to what extent primary suspensions are rising because of worsening behaviour or changing practices in schools. Does the trend reflect “a societal problem”, he asks. Or does it show that schools are “working hard” to resolve concerns around pupils earlier and “set them up better for life”?

If primary suspensions continue to rise in years to come, then - as Chatley and many other school leaders would no doubt underline - these are questions that will need to be answered.

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