School Gate: The thorny issue of expulsion

Poorly performing schools are to receive extra funding and will be spared having to take disruptive pupils, Ed Balls said yesterday.

Secondary moderns in particular will benefit from the announcement. The non-selective schools, in local authority areas where grammar schools remain, can apply for the money if they are deemed to be doing badly. It is meant to provide services and role models so that pupils who did not pass the 11-plus do not feel like failures.

The Schools Secretary said he had written to selective local authorities with the highest number of low-attaining secondary modern schools, including Plymouth, Kent, Wirral, Medway, Buckinghamshire and Lincolnshire. His letter acknowledged that some schools had “substantial difficulties” in raising and maintaining attainment because students lacked confidence.

Mr Balls has named more than 600 schools, where fewer than 30 per cent of pupils achieve five good GCSEs including maths and English, as being on his National Challenge register. The schools have been warned that they face closure or being turned into academies if results do not improve.

He said some would benefit from £1 million to support gifted and talented pupils. This will be spent over three years in up to 50 schools.

Secondary moderns on the register can apply for up to £1 million of extra funding, compared with £750,000 in nonselective areas. In a further eye-catching initiative, the lowest-performing schools on the register – those with 20 per cent or fewer pupils achieving five good GCSEs including English and maths – will no longer have to take children with behaviour problems midway through the year. Currently all schools must take their share of excluded children.

Mr Balls said: “It’s really important that all schools cooperate to tackle the issue of excluded pupils. That’s why Sir Alan Steer [who conducted a review into pupil behaviour] recommended that all schools should be part of behaviour partnerships. However, we want to allow schools in the most challenging circumstances to focus fully on raising results.”

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said most local authorities with schools on the register had appointed experts to hasten their improvement.

Mr Balls said: “We want to support selected National Challenge schools to develop an expertise that will help them to attract parents and pupils as they grow stronger.

“Non-selective pupils frequently have a perception of having ‘failed’ the 11-plus, and it is especially important to provide excellent role models and to raise aspirations.”

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