Isle of Wight schools had high rate of Covid exclusions

Department for Education figures show "wilful and repeated transgression of protective measures" was a reason behind 168 exclusions from schools on the Isle of Wight in the 2020-21 academic year.

All were temporary exclusions.

Of these, 149 were in secondary schools and 19 in primary schools.

It means there were 100 exclusions for breaches of Covid measures for every 10,000 pupils on the Isle of Wight — one of the highest rates in the country.

What were the exclusions for?

Children across England were excluded 12,965 times for reasons including non-compliance with social distancing, causing distress such as purposefully coughing near to others, or any other deliberate breach of a school's public health measures.

Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said schools worked very hard to keep pupils and staff safe during the pandemic, and it is not unreasonable that young people should be expected to comply.

What did the Isle of Wight Council say about the exclusions?

An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson said the suspensions were issued when students failed to follow public health safety instructions designed to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

Cabinet member for children's services, education and lifelong skills, Cllr Debbie Andre, said, “I can understand why school leaders took a harder line with students during the pandemic to help prevent the spread of Covid-19, but we need to ensure the high use of suspension reduces now protective measures are no longer required.

"Children and young people have had a disrupted education over the past two years and we need to get back to business as usual with the emphasis on ensuring high attendance and providing outstanding learning opportunities.

"Headteachers have access to high quality advice in relation to behaviour management and can draw upon a wide repertoire of approaches to change behaviours where this falls below expectations. Fixed-term suspensions should only be used as a last resort.”

What other reasons were children excluded for school for?

On the Isle of Wight, there were a total of 1,115 exclusions (1,105 temporary and ten permanent) for all reasons last year – up from 865 in 2019-20.

Figures for the most recent academic year include a period in spring 2021 when Covid restrictions meant only key worker and vulnerable children were attending school in person, with others being educated remotely.

Of the 16 possible reasons for exclusion, public health was the fourth most frequent.

The most common reasons were for persistent disruptive behaviour (29 per cent), verbal abuse or threatening behaviour towards an adult (23 per cent) and physical assault against a pupil (16 per cent).

Click here for source data