Tools for Schools
A child or young person can only be excluded from school in response to a serious breach or persistent breaches of the school’s behaviour policy; and where allowing the pupil to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school.
Only a Headteacher can make the decision to exclude.
If a pupil has had a number of Fixed Term Exclusions in a period of 2 terms, school is advised to contact the Fair Access Team. [email protected]
West Sussex’ Fair Access Team will guide the school through the Graduated Approach, to ensure that school has considered how to meet need. The expectation is that school will have followed the cycle of Assess, Plan, Do, Review, giving each cycle some time to embed the support and monitor impact.
School will be expected to have already explored
- OAIP document
- Discussed pupil at CARM
- Personal Support Plan
- Support from specialist services if pupil is from a vulnerable group (EMTAS, Virtual school, sensory team, CMHLS, social services, etc.)
- Referred for advice from LBAT/ASCT
- Considered family support eg Early Help Plan
Fair Access may be able to signpost to additional therapeutic agencies or support a referral to the West Sussex Alternative Provision College Inclusion Team, who can offer a range of support strategies and direct working with the pupil.
Sometimes schools may need help identifying appropriate teams for particular behaviours and Fair Access will advise on process e.g. to access support for children displaying harmful sexualised behaviours or mental health needs.
On occasion school may wish to consider a Managed Move for secondary pupils. Although this is a school to school agreement, Fair Access can support with the process to ensure maximum opportunity for success. Recording and monitoring of the MM process happens at secondary pupil placement panel. Managed Moves are not considered appropriate for primary children.
Where WSAPC inclusion and or LBAT have identified that a Directed Off Site placement may be advantageous to a pupil, they can be placed into WSAPC for a short stay for targeted intervention.
Should there be little impact from these strategies, it is likely that the pupil should be considered for an Educational Health and Care Assessment Request and a conversation with an EP.
If a child is at risk of exclusion who already has an EHCP, conversations with SENAT to explore appropriate ways of meeting needs must be had in the first instance and an Emergency Annual Review called to review support and provision and find alternatives to exclusion.
Last updated 16 August 2021