Head teachers in Scotland have warned against any return to expelling badly behaved pupils, saying the sanction creates at “vicious circle” that can “ruin” the life of a youngster.
School Leaders Scotland (SLS) also said most of its members do not feel under “pressure” to avoid suspending pupils.
The remarks from the organisation, which represents secondary school heads, depute heads and principal teachers, come after The Scotsman highlighted figures this week showing there was just one permanent exclusion from a Scottish school last year, down from 360 in 1999 and 248 in 2007.
Suspensions have also plummeted, from 44,546 in 2006 to 11,675 last year, despite rising concerns about violence and behaviour.
SLS general secretary Graham Hutton said permanent exclusions were only sanctioned by local authority education directors.
"We are fortunate in Scotland in not being in the same position as other UK jurisdictions, specifically England, where there are loads of kids ‘missing from education’,” he said.
"This is important in comparing Scotland with the other nations of the UK. Any young person who is ‘permanently excluded’ from a particular school will be found an alternative educational venue by the local authority.
“Permanent exclusions as seen in England, however, do not solve any issues and only exacerbate the problems being experienced by the young person – it’ll ruin their life chances and will become a vicious circle with other agencies no doubt becoming involved throughout their lifetime. Therefore, we should be trying to limit permanent exclusions.”
Mr Hutton said there was a place for temporary exclusions, however, which are generally delegated to head teachers.
"Because schools are effectively now the only remaining universal front line service, due to cuts to other support services, temporary exclusion is often an appropriate route – not a punishment (although others do need to see it as that), but to provide a bit of a breathing space so that appropriate plans can be put in place if the pupil is to be readmitted or if there is a plan to involve other provision within an authority/school,” he said.
