Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services that provided information on the extent of exclusions in County Durham in the academic year 2016-17 (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Chairman asked if Ofsted looked at exclusion records and was informed that they do and would focus on reported high levels.

Councillor Kennedy said that primary schools did not appear to have as much behavioural problems as the secondary schools, and some children who move up to secondary school were already experiencing problems.  The Head of Education said that the working group would focus on that but that the statistics did not show that trend.  He said that the management of behaviour often resulted in less exclusions.

Councillor Smith said that care should be taken not to generalise as a lot of staff were motivated to engage with children experiencing behavioural problems and suggested that a pro-active approach was taken.

Referring to Special Needs, Councillor Blakey asked if children who were awaiting to be statemented were included in these figures she was concerned that this would affect the numbers.  The Head of Education confirmed that they would be included in the figures but a defined analysis would show that most children who were excluded would have an undiagnosed matter of SEND.

Mrs Swift asked why there wasn’t as much success in secondary schools from the Early Intervention and Crisis Team as the Head of Education explained that this could be down to the service level agreement.  He added that some primary schools may choose to buy in to that service whereas secondary schools often had their own teams.  This was being reviewed in terms of success and how to role that out.

With regards to alternative provision Councillor Patterson asked who funded the bill and if that funding moved with the child.  The Head of Education advised that each pupil has a block of funding and that would move with the pupil but that the Behaviour Panel also have money to fund alternative provision so could pick up on any shortfalls.

A pupil commented that primary schools tended to make verbal warnings for misbehaviour whereas secondary schools take more action by excluding rather than talking through any problems on a one to one basis.

A pupil added that some students think that if they receive a verbal warning then they can get away with misbehaving and showing off to their friends and therefore they agreed that there needs to be a system in place to exclude.

A pupil asked if information was shared from a primary in the transition to secondary school.

The Head of Education thanked the pupils for their questions.  He would take all of their points on board.  He commented that in primary school often teachers would know the child better and therefore might be able to manage behaviour better.  However, new teachers in a new school would not necessarily know the student at secondary level.  He confirmed that information should be shared from primary to secondary school about all pupils but appreciated the question about ensuring the transition was right.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.