A North-east London borough has cut by two-thirds the number of children permanently excluded from school in just one year.
Waltham Forest announced this week that it had cut the figure of excluded pupils from 40 to 13 by working closely with schools and intervening early to help children at risk of exclusion stay in school.
The borough is one of 34 authorities in the Government’s behaviour initiative targeted on areas of high street crime and truancy.
The number of fixed-term exclusions has also fallen during the last year. But because of a slight increase in the number of longer temporary exclusions, the number of lost school days has risen slightly, from 1,432 to 1,508.
National figures released recently by the Department for Education and Skills showed a rise in permanent exclusions last year, after ministers relaxed stiff targets to cut the total. The figure rose from 8,323 to 9,210 in 20001 in England.
