No.

Whenever a pupil is made to leave, or forbidden from attending a maintained school or academy, on disciplinary grounds, this must be done in accordance with the law and statutory guidance on exclusions.

The statutory guidance is clear that pressurising a parent into elective home education to avoid exclusion is an example of what it calls “off rolling”. This is when an unlawful exclusion is carried out and it leads to the child being removed from the school’s register (because the parent wants to avoid the exclusion, so agrees to elective home education).

“A further example of off-rolling would be exercising undue influence over a parent to remove their child from the school under the threat of a permanent exclusion and encouraging them to choose Elective Home Education or to find another school place.” (paragraph 21)

If you feel under pressure to home educate your child to avoid an exclusion, or you have already agreed to home educate your child in this situation, you can take action against the school.

You may also want to tell Ofsted. It considers any evidence of off-rolling and is likely to judge a school as inadequate if there is evidence that pupils’ names have been removed from the school admission register due to the school encouraging a parent to remove their child, and leaders have taken insufficient action to address this.

Tell your local authority too, so it is aware that this is happening in its area. Guidance for local authorities on elective home education confirms that “Schools should not seek to persuade parents to educate their children at home as a way of avoiding an exclusion....” (paragraph 10.5).

If your child is now out of education as a result of the school’s unlawful exclusion, you should contact your local authority and request that suitable alternative education is put in place. We have a template letter you can use to help you.