New policy results in fewer exclusions

published:01 Dec 2009

Christiana Sulé is a secondary teacher at Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College for Girls, in Croydon, London. Besides teaching chemistry, health and social care, biology and science, Christina mentors student teachers and is a practice researcher.

What inspired this project?
While the school has a wide variety of ethnicities, 90% of temporary and permanent exclusions were of African Caribbean pupils - equivalent to 22 per cent of this group.

Christina set out to discover:

• why was the number so high?
• what was the impact of exclusions on African Caribbean pupils’ achievement?

What happened next?
A series of questionnaires enabled excluded black and minority ethnic pupils, their teachers and a school focus group to share their views. 

Information gathered included:

• the reasons given by staff for exclusions
• the behaviour patterns that led to exclusions
• the uniformity of punishments given
• the extent to which the schools behaviour guidelines were consistently followed by staff
• the impact of pupil grouping on behaviour
• the support system in place for excluded pupils.

A new sanctions policy was introduced, with the school’s exclusion data scrutinised both before and after its inception.

What is the impact for pupils?
Pupils have been consulted during the creation of a new behaviour policy. This ensures that school rules and behaviour expectations are transparent to all pupils and staff, who consistently challenge any poor behaviour. As a result, behaviour has improved in all classes and there are fewer exclusions.