Some school pupils may be “kicking back” against rules, a councillor has claimed, amid soaring rates of permanent exclusions.

Redcar and Cleveland Council intends to speak with youngsters who have been barred from schools to get accounts of their “lived experience” to better understand why the numbers are so high.

Both permanent exclusions and suspensions continue to rack up among secondary school pupils in Redcar and Cleveland with the substantial impact of the covid-19 pandemic being one reason given.

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In the current 2021/22 academic year up to June there were 55 permanent exclusions recorded, a 266% increase from 12 months previous when the figure was 15.

Meanwhile, there were 3,651 suspensions up to June over the same period, a 57.8% annual rise from 2,300 a year earlier during the 2020/21 academic year.

An annual report from the lead member for children’s services, Councillor Alison Barnes said current rates were “much higher than predicted”, adding: “We continue to work in partnership with schools and outside agencies to best support young people to remain in school.

“We are visiting a number of schools to compare their approaches to this difficult problem and we are also intending to speak to young people who have been excluded to explore their lived experience.”

The report went on to say that the “aftermath of covid is still affecting the landscape of our schools, highlighting and exacerbating problems that were already present, including mental health issues, attendance, exclusions and suspensions.”

Referring to the pandemic, Liberal Democrat Cllr Barnes, a governor at Outwood Academy Bydales in Marske, said: “You had a number of students who when the schools were closed were able to do what they wanted.

“They were not in supportive families who were prepared to get them to work online.

“Coming from a period of absolute freedom to then being restrained within the school rules has been very difficult for some children and they have kicked back against it.”

Cllr Barnes said she had been told about two categories of students – the ‘naughty boys’ who rack up suspensions – and those with mental health and other issues.

She said: “It is important to differentiate between those two sorts of students.

“There are a number of students with special educational needs and disability (SEND) issues and it is up to schools to treat pupils differently, and some schools I confess have got very rigid behaviour policies, which are cumulative.

“So if you are suspended for one day for disruptive behaviour, the next time you are suspended it will be two days, which in my mind is completely wrong, as each situation should be dealt with separately.”

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A meeting of the council heard that a ‘task and finish’ group looking at some of the issues at play had “effectively died” and was in the process of being resurrected.

Cllr Barnes said: “We have started it again because the situation now is different from when it was set up.

“We have already been to several schools and are going out into the community to see why some schools are more effective than others at reducing suspensions.

“We want to try and look at good practice and then suggest that this might be taken on by other academies.

“Having said that, academies are separate and have their own rules and we cannot impose suggestions on them.”

Councillor Philip Thomson, an independent who represents Saltburn, said he was “quite concerned” by the figures.

He said: “We seem to be either standing still or going backwards and we know that any child not in education poses a real challenge.”

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