Northern councils dominate the list of the 10 local authorities with the highest secondary-school exclusion rates in the country.
Secondaries in the region have exclusion rates double or, in some cases, triple the national average.
Ofsted has drawn attention to this fact: the schools’ inspectorate is this week writing to secondary headteachers in the North East and Yorkshire and Humber, to express concerns about the high rates of fixed-period exclusions in the area.
Middlesbrough tops the list: 984 of its pupils have been excluded once or more. This is equivalent to 13 per cent of its pupils: more than three times the national rate.
Barnsley has the second-highest proportion of exclusions: 11 per cent of pupils, a total of 1,279 across the authority.
Redcar and Cleveland, Doncaster and Telford and Wrekin make up the rest of the top five.
Nationally, only 4 per cent of pupils have been excluded: a total of 135,925 across the country.
Highest exclusion rates
The 10 local authorities with the highest secondary-school fixed-period exclusion rates in England:
- Middlesbrough: 13%
- Barnsley: 11%
- Redcar and Cleveland: 8%
- Doncaster: 9%
- Knowsley: 9%
- North-East Lincolnshire: 8%
- Sheffield: 8%
- Telford and Wrekin: 8%
- North Lincolnshire: 7%
- Rotherham: 7%
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