Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of (a) fixed-term and (b) permanent exclusion on the excluded student’s educational attainment.

The technical note published alongside the Government’s response to the Timpson review of school exclusion on 7 May 2019 includes descriptive statistics showing Key Stage 4 attainment by exclusion status. This can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/school-exclusions-review-call-for-evidence.

The report states: “Key Stage 4 attainment of pupils receiving a permanent exclusion during secondary school is lower than that for pupils who have never received either a permanent or fixed period exclusion. Among those receiving some form of exclusion, attainment is highest for those receiving only one fixed period exclusion during their school career and lowest for those receiving a permanent exclusion. However, these results do not imply that exclusion is the cause of low attainment (or vice versa) as differences in pupil characteristics that may impact attainment have not been taken into consideration."