Schools and learning

Permanent exclusion from school

• You should receive a letter from your child’s Headteacher informing you of the decision to permanently exclude your child from school and the reasons why this happened.
• The school is responsible for providing work for your child to do at home until your child’s name has been removed from the school roll.
• The governors' Discipline Committee must meet within 15 school days of a headteacher’s decision to permanently exclude a child. You are entitled to attend this meeting. The school will write to you with details and the arrangements for this meeting.
• By the end of the Discipline Committee’s meeting, the chair must send you a letter stating the decision reached by the committee, the reasons and your right of appeal.
• If the governors' Discipline Committee agree with the headteacher’s decision and your child is to be excluded, you may make an appeal to an independent appeal panel. You have 15 school days from receipt of letter from the chair of the governors' Discipline Committee informing you of their decision. The role of this independent panel is, as an impartial body, to consider whether the school was right to permanently exclude your child and if not whether your child should be reinstated. You will need to contact the Conciliation Appeals Unit to make this appeal.
• Your child’s name cannot be removed from the school roll until after the outcome of your appeal to an independent appeal panel or the period within which you have a right to appeal has elapsed.
• You have the right to see your child’s school records. You will need to contact the school directly if you wish to see these records.
• If your child is not re-instated you will be invited to meet with a post exclusion panel to discuss your child’s future educational provision.