Internal Suspensions

Suspension is when a pupil is excluded from their normal day-to-day activities. The child must work away from their class for a fixed amount of time. This may be in a different classroom or in an office with a TA or a member of SLT.

A Suspension may be used in response to a one off behaviour, such as an aggressive outburst or may be a result of a culmination of behaviours as outlined in the graduated response above. Only a member of the Senior Leadership Team may suspend a child. This will be communicated to Parents.

As a result of a suspension, additional support may be put in place in order to help the child avoid their behaviour escalating to a point where a fixed term exclusion is necessary (examples: behaviour plan, behaviour chart to address specific behaviours causing a problem; support from an additional adult etc) Internal suspension is a formal process but not a legal exclusion.
 
External Suspensions

Whilst every effort will be made to keep children in school and cater for their needs, external suspensions will be considered where needed:
 

• In response to a serious breach, or persistent breaches of the school’s behaviour framework; and where allowing the pupil to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupils or others in school.

The following actions would lead to immediate external suspension:
 

• Stabbing another child or adult with an object used as a weapon

• Unprovoked physical attack on a child or an adult that leads to serious harm of the victim

• When the school has taken persistent and comprehensive action to address the child’s needs that day and the child is completely unresponsive leading to violence towards others and/or serious disruption of learning for other children in the school.

When establishing the facts, the Principal will use the civil standard of proof i.e. on the balance of probabilities it is more likely than not that the fact is true. Account will be taken of all contributing factors.
 
Permanent Exclusions

If a child receives more than 45 periods of exclusion in a year (15 a term) permanent exclusion will be considered.

The school follows all the guidance set out in the ‘Exclusions from Maintained Schools, Academies and Pupil referral units in England’ updated by the DFE in September 2017. Therefore, children with SEN, will not be discriminated against, harassed or victimised because of: sex; race; disability; religion or belief or sexual orientation. The school will comply with their statutory duties in relation to SEN when administering the exclusion process, including having regard to the SEND Code of Practice.