'TOO MANY ACADEMY EXCLUSIONS' - MP Karen Buck writes to education chiefs over ‘worrying’ trend
Published: 30 July 2010
by TOM FOOT
THE Education Secretary has been asked to “intervene” after details of a “worryingly high” pupil exclusion rate emerged at Westminster Academy.
Karen Buck MP (pictured) and Westminster Council’s schools chief Nickie Aiken have written a joint letter to the Department for Education about a “number of concerns” over the secondary school in Harrow Road.
The West End Extra can reveal that Westminster Academy excluded 85 pupils over the last two school years. The figure is more than 20 times higher the average in Westminster schools.
Angela Drizi, City Hall’s director of education, said: “We are aware that a high number of pupils have been excluded from Westminster Academy.”
A breakdown of the figures reveals 19 “permanent exclusions” at the Harrow Road secondary school over the last two years, while the total for all of Westminster’s 41 schools put together over the same period is just 12.
Permanent exclusions – when pupils are told they cannot come back – are frowned-on by supporters of a comprehensive education system.
The revelations have been met by a chorus of disapproval from campaigners and the teaching unions who have long warned how academy schools – which are independent from local authority guidelines on exclusions and admissions – could use their powers inappropriately.
Alasdair Smith, chairman of the Anti Academies Alliance, said: “These exclusion figures illustrate the danger of academies. They can re-structure their intake, passing the buck for educating some of the most-vulnerable and neediest children on to someone else.”
Westminster Academy has declined to comment on the matter, but in its mission statement says their’s “is an inclusive school which seeks to avoid permanent exclusions”.
Under the tried and tested schools system, which is being dismantled by government reforms, headteachers had to look for alternatives before resorting to permanent exclusions.
They would consult parent governors and the council before excluding any student, with sin-bin-style “fixed-term exclusions” preferred to an outright ban.
But now the council says it has no role in monitoring pupil exclusions, and this is why they have been forced to contact the Department of Education.
Paddington Academy – which was formed alongside Westminster Academy after North Westminster Community School was shut down by the Government in 2005 – has excluded 23 children in the last two academic years.
Since 2008, both academies have sent a combined 16 pupils to Westside – a school for pupils, mainly with special education needs, who have “come off track”.
This compares with four referrals from all of the other schools in Westminster.
Westside was the subject of a Channel 4 fly-on-the-wall documentary in 2008 following the fortunes of pupils “with nowhere else to go” and “whose next stop might be prison”.
Westminster Academy – specialising in International Business and Enterprise Academy – is sponsored by the Exilarch Foundation, a charity founded by the Iraqi billionaire Naim Dangoor OBE.
In 2008, just 20 per cent of pupils were awarded five “good” GCSEs – one of the lowest scores in the country. Last year, pupils achieved a significantly higher pass rate of 45 per cent.
Cllr Aiken added: “As the council can have no statutory intervention role with an academy, we have now asked the Department for Education for help in addressing these problems.
“We are keen to seek a solution to ensure these issues can be resolved and that going forward pupils receive a first class education.”
The Academies Bill – giving all schools powers to work independently from national exclusion guidelines – is going through Parliament and could become law in September.