Exclusion

A head teacher or principal can exclude your child (or if you’re a young person, you) from school for disciplinary reasons. There are two lawful types of exclusion:

• permanent exclusion, or
• for a fixed-period, which is called a “suspension”.

The law and the statutory guidance about exclusions relates to children and young people who are attending:

• a maintained school,
• an academy,
• a pupil referral unit, or
• a school sixth form,

and there are certain steps the setting must follow when excluding your child (or a young person) from these settings. What steps it needs to take depends on the length of the exclusion.

If a child or young person attends a:

• sixth form college
• further education college
• non-maintained special school
• section 41 school, or,
• an independent school or college,

they can be excluded in accordance with the setting’s exclusion policies. You can find out more information about exclusion from these types of setting on our website.

You can find out more about exclusions in general on our website too.