Too Many ALN Children Being Excluded In Wales

Welsh Tories call for overhaul on punishments for kids with learning difficulties

Too many children with additional learning needs (ALN) are being expelled from school, according to the Welsh Conservatives.

The Tory party has obtained figures which reveal around 88% of primary school pupils being handed a fixed-term suspension have learning difficulties.

The statistics for 2015/16 reveal almost all children suspended in Swansea primaries had ALN.

The Welsh Conservatives are calling for a change to how kids in Wales are punished.

Pupils with ALN made up 80% of all permanent exclusions from Welsh primary schools and 44% of secondary exclusions.

For fixed term exclusions, of the 2,709 exclusions from Welsh primary schools, 2,382 were children with ALN – 87.9% of the total. 

This was highest in Swansea (96.9%) and lowest in Monmouthshire (56.2%).

For fixed term exclusions in secondary schools, of the 10,579 exclusions, 6,758 were children with ALN – 63.8% of the total.

This was highest in Ceredigion (89%) and lowest in Conwy (42.3%).  

In Special Schools, children with ALN made up 97.9% of all fixed term exclusions and 86.9% from Pupil Referral Units.

Of all fixed term exclusions, 350 were looked-after children.

The most recent figures were revealed in response to a Written Assembly Question from Welsh Conservative Angela Burns AM who is calling for change.

She continued, “These figures are worrying since they suggest that exclusions are not being used as a matter of last resort, but as the norm for children with ALN.

“There needs to be an urgent overhaul in how educational staff deal with ALN pupils who are disruptive, and realise they do not necessarily behave in that way through choice.

“Welsh Government must now work with local authorities and schools to ensure that this number starts to drop to ensure that ALN pupils don’t miss out on an education and that teachers are trained to deal with disruptive pupils and not have to use exclusions so often.

Shadow Education Secretary Darren Millar AM commented:

“The fact that pupils with additional needs are massively over-represented in school exclusion figures is something that needs addressing immediately.

“There needs to be greater understanding of those with ALN – and indeed looked-after children – for staff to bring a holistic approach to teaching and discipline.

“This isn’t about simply letting behavioural standards slip, but learning from best practice to keep as many children in school as possible.

“So let’s have a constructive discussion across levels of government to get exclusions down across-the-board and use suitably different methods to discipline ALN pupils rather than exclusion.”

'Nonsensical Figures'

Councillor Jennifer Raynor, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Education has hit out at the stats brought to light by the Welsh Tories.

She told us while the number of excluded or suspended children seems high in Swansea, the overall number of children actually being excluded from schools in the constituency is one of the lowest in Wales. 

Ms Raynor said: “I’m very disappointed that the Welsh Conservative have put out these nonsensical figures.

If they had really done their homework they would have realised that Swansea has very few pupils being suspended compared with other areas of Wales, especially in primary schools.

“We do everything we can to keep exclusions very very low and the figures support that."