Maintaining a child's education
Schools should:
- during the first five days of a fixed-period exclusion take all reasonable steps to set work for your child and mark it;
- for a fixed-period exclusion of more than five school days, it is the duty of the school to arrange the education of your child, unless they attend a pupil referral unit (PRU) - in which case our local authority should make arrangements.
Parents who wish to raise a concern about lack of, or the quality of, education arranged during a fixed-period exclusion, should follow the school's official complaints procedure.
For a permanent exclusion, our local authority must arrange a suitable full-time education to begin no later than the sixth school day of the exclusion. Parents who wish to raise a concern about lack of, or the quality of, education following a permanent exclusion, should complain to our local authority.
Attending exams or national curriculum tests after an exclusion
This is a decision for the school. Neither the school nor the local authority is legally required to arrange for an excluded pupil to take a public examination or national curriculum test that occurs during the exclusion, although some may choose to arrange for this, either on school premises or elsewhere. Where a parent has concerns they should raise these with the school.
Parental duties when a child has been excluded
For the first five school days of any exclusion, parents must ensure that their child is not in a public place during school hours without very good reason. Parents must also ensure that their child attends any new full-time education provided from the sixth day of exclusion (unless they've arranged suitable alternative education themselves).