School exclusions shock

I am appalled that schools have allegedly been fudging their exclusion figures. This is just not on.
 
Schools do not exclude a pupil lightly and, if they decide to do so why on earth is anyone looking to argue against it let alone punish them for using such a weapon.
 
If a child is disrupting the education of their peers through bad or violent behaviour then they need sorting out and the school is not the place to do it. So exclude them and send them somewhere to get professional help.
 
The Link Centre seems to be a whipping boy at the moment and not without some justification. It seems to be an excellent idea which seems to have been poorly executed.

We do need a centre to place disruptive children where they can receive specialist help whilst still continuing some form of education. It needs to be freely accessible to the mainstream schools and it needs to keep pupils until they are ready to return into full-time education.
 
It was so that entry to the Link involved so many hurdles and hoops that the school was at the end of their tether with the troubled child by the time anything was done. Not surprisingly that school were happy to see the back of the child and didn’t want them back under any circumstances. There is only so much that any individual can take before washing their hands. That limit is a lot further along the line for most teachers compared to the rest of us but even they reach it eventually.
 
So let’s change the system.
 
If a child needs excluding, then let the school just do it.
 
If after an initial cooling off period, the child continues to disrupt, then remove them from the school and send them to an expanded Link Centre staffed by professionals who can help put the child back on track.
 
Forget parental consent; often it is the home life which is the problem rather than the solution and a mainstream school is not the place to deal with it. They are there to educate not to provide a substitute for a decent home life.
 
Teachers are essential to the Link mix but they are expert in a different field. They should not be expected to “cure” the child, merely to continue to educate them in the light of their difficulties; that job will be for the on site professionals. It will be a challenging job and the Centre will need experienced teachers with a vocation for dealing with such children. These people do exist.
 
So, we have a mainstream system which can concentrate on teaching and an expanded Link Centre where children can easily receive the professional help they so need.
 
What’s not to like?
 
But these children need to remain in their community and with their friends. They are feeling cut off as it is and don’t need us to compound the problem.
 
I repeat, schools are places to educate children. Teachers are skilled educators not social workers or educational psychologists. Let them get on with what they are good at and let other professionals sort out the troubled children so that they may be returned to their community as valued and welcome individuals.
 
This may mean the Link moving to larger premises and do we really want to build yet another new school?
 
If the existing site cannot be extended and the demand for places is there, then yes we do need to move them. We cannot afford not to do so while the education of the majority of our schoolchildren is at risk from this disruptive and troubled minority.