Schools lack the funding and specialist support to effectively include all children.
That’s the view of Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU).
Her comments came after Charity Ambitious about Autism released figures showing a big rise in the numbers of children with autism excluded from schools across England.
Stacey Brown with seven-year-old son Billy. His school excluded him last December
4,500 pupils with autism excluded
The latest figures show that schools excluded nearly 4,500 pupils with autism in 2015/16. This represented a 60 per cent increase since 2011.
However, the overall number of pupils excluded from school has risen by just 4 per cent.
Bousted insisted that “excluding pupils is not taken lightly”.
She said curriculum changes have made inclusivity difficult. Flexibility had become “diminished”. In addition, exams were now “based wholly on memory rather than including coursework”.
‘Deep unhappiness’
Jolanta Lasota is the chief executive of Ambitious about Autism.
She said excluded pupils suffer “deep unhappiness, social anxiety and mental health problems”.
The UK government has set up an independent review into exclusions.
Lasota said this “must get to the bottom of what is happening to these children”. The education system had failed them “for too long”.
‘Very anxious’
Stacey Brown, from Bilborough in Nottingham, says a mainstream school excluded her seven-year-old son Billy in December 2017.
Billy, who has autism, had no education for two months. Brown said this left him “very anxious” and missing “structure in his life”.
But he started a new mainstream school after the February half-term and now seems to be coping.
A Department for Education spokesperson admitted the government needed to do more “to make sure that vulnerable children are not unfairly treated”.
The spokesperson said the exclusions review would look at why schools were more likely to exclude some groups of children, such as those with autism.
Related:
- MPs back call to cut school exclusions
- Kids feel isolated in mainstream school
- Excluded pupils develop mental problems
- Schools failing children with autism
Published: 20 June 2018
