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UNDERSTANDING THESE STATISTICS
General background on exclusion policy
1. Under Circulars 10/93 and 1/95, local authorities are required each year to collect certain statistics from schools on exclusions. The statistics relate to half-days of temporary exclusions and number of pupils removed from the register (previously known as 'permanent' exclusions).
2. In April 1998, the then Scottish Office issued Circular 2/98 to local authorities, informing them of a formal requirement to report, record and monitor additional information on exclusions from schools starting from the 1998/99 school year. Since 2003/04 an agreed set of information on each exclusion has been sent to the Scottish Government as part of the ScotXed programme of data exchange.
3. Following an answer to a Parliamentary Question in June 2003, the Government issued Circular 8/03 in November 2003, which gave revised guidance and formally informed local authorities that the target to reduce exclusions had been dropped. New guidance on exclusion from school is currently being developed and will be published in 2009.
4. An exclusion is temporary when a pupil is excluded from a school but remains on the register of that school because they are expected to return when the exclusion period is completed. The term 'removed from the register' refers to a pupil who is excluded and their name removed from the school register. Such a pupil would then be educated at another school or via some other form of provision.
5. Local authorities may also reach agreements with parents to move a pupil to another school without the use of a formal 'removal from register', but where the pupil is unlikely to have the option of staying in the school.
Issues relating to data
6 This survey covers local authority primary, secondary and special schools.
7. Since 2003/04 data has been collected at individual level, enabling greater analysis. This also enabled linkage to the September pupil census information. However in 2007/08 for 323 exclusions (one per cent) linkage to the census dataset was not possible, due mainly to a change of pupil identifier. This has been shown in all relevant tables as "data not available". Furthermore, some pupil characteristics of pupils who were removed from register in Glasgow were not available, due to lack of recording. Tables affected by this have been footnoted accordingly.
8. Information is received at pupil level and a unique pupil identifier ( UPN) was introduced in 2006. The UPN should enable a distinction to be made between different pupils. However in some cases (e.g. when counting the number of individual pupils excluded) some pupils with two or more exclusions may have been counted as separate pupils with one exclusion each. This is likely to have happened for fewer than 323 pupils (in thoses cases of exclusion where pupil census data could not be matched), less than 1.6 percent of all excluded pupils.
9. It was found that information on temporary exclusions was not consistent with information on absence due to temporary exclusion received in the attendance survey. The difference is small; 0.4% of absence due to temporary exclusion cannot be accounted for through the exclusions figures. Validation checks have been built into information systems to ensure that consistent data is recorded, and this problem is being reduced.
10. Data are collected on appeals to local authorities against exclusions. However, as the number of successful appeals has been poorly recorded this information has again not been published this year.
11. In table 12, a two-year average of exclusion rate per 1,000 pupils has been used to reduce the instability in rates of exclusion due to small numbers in several minority ethnic groups. This analysis may be affected by the three per cent of pupils in the school census for whom ethnicity is not disclosed, or the 323 exclusions in 2007/08 and 740 exclusions in 2006/07 for which data could not be matched to the school census information.
12. Information on free school meals ( FSM) collected at the 2007 pupil census by Glasgow City was discovered to be inconsistent with previous years. Therefore, where possible, these tables and charts have been replaced with tables based on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) relating to the data zones in which pupils live.
13. Reasons for exclusion categories have been changed this year to distinguish between acts or threats against pupils and acts or threats against staff. As multiple reasons can be recorded per exclusion, it is possible to have both pupil and staff reason recorded where in the past a single reason would have been recorded. Double counts of this nature have been taken out of the figures in table 20, making it comparable with 2006/07 data. A break-down on pupil and staff reasons for exclusions has been provided in table 21.
14. This year, statistics on type of motivation for incident leading to exclusion have not been provided as in 90 per cent of exclusions, no motivation was recorded. It is however important that these motivations are recorded, as they are an indication to what extent racial, gang, alcohol related, homophobic and sectarian motivations, to name but a few, are behind the actual act or threat that led to exclusion.
15. This year, the rate of cases of exclusion for children who are looked after has been calculated on the basis of looked after status recorded at time of exclusion as these data are more reliable now than the snap-shot data from the pupil census. The rates found in the table are therefore not directly comparable with last year's rates. However, if the rate had been based on looked after status as recorded at the pupil census (as was done before) the rate per 1,000 pupils for total looked after would be 350, for looked after at home 352 and for looked after away from home 347.
Other information
16. All percentages and rates are rounded separately and breakdowns may consequently not sum to 100 per cent.
17. This report was edited by: Isabella de Wit.
18. This is a National Statistics publication. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.
19. All tables are available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00713
Symbols
20. The following symbols are used:
- | = | nil or rounds to nil |
## | = | not applicable. In data on special schools, local authorities are marked as ## where there are no special schools. |
Enquiries
21. Public enquiries (non-media) about the information contained in this notice should be addressed to:
Isabella de Wit
Pupil, Teacher and School Statistics
Room 1B South
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh EH6 6QQ.Telephone 0131 244 0300 or e-mail school.stats@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
18. Media enquiries about the information in this notice should be addressed to:
Tom Whittles : 0131 244 2530
Statistics Publication Notice
26 th January, 2009
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