Latest figures show that the number of primary aged pupils in PRUs has seen a sharp increase.
Latest figures show that the number of primary aged pupils in PRUs has seen a sharp increase. More children under the age of 11 are being educated in PRUs than ever before. PRUs often work with pupils with complex problems and offer a range of specialist teaching, support and mentoring. However they are seeing more younger children being admitted than ever before at one of the most vulnerable stages of their education.
Whilst a PRU is the best place for some pupils, these figures are reinforcing concerns regarding the number of pupil exclusions from mainstream schools. Permanent exclusions have increased again over the last few years and although not at an all-time high numbers are trending that way. Most of these excluded pupils will end up in PRUs or other forms of alternative provision leading to concerns about provision, numbers and general interventions for pupils.
The general concern in figures relating to exclusion has led to a report on school exclusions being commissioned. This is due to be released shortly and it will no doubt make for interesting reading.
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Laura.murphy@brownejacobson.com
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The Children’s Commissioner, Rachel De Souza, has recently published a report “Beyond the labels: a SEND system which works for every child, every time”, which she intends to sit alongside the DfE’s SEND Review (2019) and SEND Green Paper (2022) and which she hopes will put children’s voices at the heart of the government’s review of SEND system.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHCR) recently issued new, non-statutory guidance regarding the wearing of natural or protective hairstyles, specifically in reference to their representation in uniform, behaviour or standalone appearance policies.
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Since the new Suspensions and Exclusions Statutory Guidance was published, we have received a lot of questions about the use of managed moves. For the first time, the Statutory Guidance does explain what a managed move is, but in relatively broad terms and does not cover the mechanics of how a managed move should operate.
Over 3000 young people from across the UK and Ireland took part in a virtual legal careers insight event, aimed at making the legal profession more diverse.
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The recent case of R (on the application of A Parent) v Governing Body of XYZ School [2022] EWHC 1146 (Admin) provides some welcome and reassuring guidance to governing boards on the exclusion reconsideration process.
National law firm Browne Jacobson has grown its team behind its dedicated Space + Time executive coaching programme with the addition of two more qualified coaches who will work with clients in the education sector.
Watch our on-demand webinar as we explain the proposed changes and help you understand how they’ll affect you and your school.
The draft exclusions guidance does not make any changes to the overall structure of exclusions – the three main stages of headteacher decision, governing board review and, for permanent exclusions, independent panel review remain in place.
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Schools will now be tasked with reading a vast amount of information to get themselves ready to provide teacher-assessed grades (TAGs) for students following the recent publication of the suite of Joint Council Qualifications (JCQ).
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The ‘Everyone’s Invited’ movement has over 9,000 testimonies on its website and, whilst it has recently taken the step to anonymise everything on the platform, a number of schools have been named.
The amended guidance and Regulations extend the existing Covid changes for exclusions through to 24 September 2021. Read on for a reminder of these changes.
From 8 March 2021 attendance at school is once again mandatory - we look at the updates to the attendance guidance for schools.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the sector.
