- Conference
- 2019 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 22 October 2018
- Decision
- Carried
Throughout the country there has been a massive rise in permanent exclusions and children being educated at home. Recent figures show a national increase of 300% in permanent exclusions in 2017. The Department of Education’s report on permanent and fixed term exclusions published in 2016/17 stated that some secondary schools are excluding up to 20% of their pupils or offering elective home education (EHE) as an alternative to attending school.
In Northumberland alone last year there were 115 permanent exclusions, a 60 % rise in the previous year. Of these 115 exclusions, 34 were for girls, a rise of 11% to the previous year. Already this year the trend continues with double the exclusions there were this time last year and the exclusions for girls continues to rise. EHE figures are alarming too. 282 children were registered throughout Northumberland, 133 of these were girls 47% of the total.
However for girls, exclusion can be a lot different than it is for boys as a report from Joseph Rowntree Foundation highlights;
Girls and exclusion from school 2001 reports; Teenage girls who are excluded from school or who have stopped attending because of disaffection, bullying or family difficulties are an “underestimated minority” whose problems should be urgently recognised and tackled, according to research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and published by the National Children’s Bureau. Its 2001 report, Not a Problem? Girls and School Exclusion, suggests that the widespread view that “girls are not a problem” is a myth that will be perpetuated as long as schools and local education authorities base their exclusion and behavioural policies on boys. The report blamed the Government’s emphasis on boys’ achievement and disaffection for leading some professionals to neglect the needs of girls, who have a tendency to withdraw and/or truant rather than displaying the kind of behaviour that teachers and authorities feel they must respond to immediately.
Cathy Street, a co-author of the report, said: “Multi-agency working is crucial if the more subtle difficulties presented by girls are to be identified and addressed. Education and child and adolescent mental health services need to work more effectively together.”
Lack of good alternative provision has left many girls without any education and some parents don’t have the proper resources to educate children themselves. Once a girl is excluded they are often placed in alternative provision that is largely a male environment, this can be intimidating for vulnerable female students. Meeting the specific needs of girls is often overlooked, for example not having girl toilets that provide sanitary products. Girls can often self exclude in these type of environments. Often a girl who becomes educated at home becomes isolated especially in rural areas and may become vulnerable to abuse within the home or sexual exploitation, eating disorders, self harm and they are still open to cyber-bullying. for example poor behaviour at school which leads to exclusion can at times be a symptom of sexual exploitation as the school can be the only safe place to display feelings of frustration.
Lack of funding and pressures on schools to meet DFE targets have left these girls with little or no support. Often with girls exclusion there are links to bullying as girls tend to foster one to one friendships rather than groups as boys do and once they have lost a friend they have lost a great ally and this can lead to social exclusion and or bullying particularly on social media. Mental health services who could help are stretched and very often girls are not getting the support in schools from specialised staff to identify these problems before there result in exclusion or parents opting for EHE to avoid exclusion or further action by the schools in relation to non attendance. Some schools have encouraged parents to educate their children at home (EHE) when their children’s behaviour is deemed problematic or attendance is poor as there isn’t support staff to help.
This has meant many girls are not in school and often their mothers bear the brunt of having to teach and care for them when they should be in school. Many women have had to give up work and the implications are far reaching, changes in circumstances now result in new applications to Universal credit which can take many weeks to assess, a further strain on families were the women may be the breadwinner single parent families where women are reliant on benefits and not in work lose out , from free school meals for children and often turn to food banks. Reports show that children who are excluded are 4 times more likely to come from a poor background.
This worrying trend in the rise in exclusions for girls through, exclusion from school, and self exclusion often through opting to educate at home when they feel their problems haven’t been addressed or they haven’t been listened too.
Conference calls upon the women’s committee to:
1 Work with branches and regions to create a campaign for
A) Improved funding for more support staff in schools to enable work with other agencies to identify problems which may lie behind their behaviours leading to exclusion for the girls whether it be from school or social exclusion.
B) To encourage specific targeted help for girls in schools so they can have a voice and highlight their problems before they result in exclusion in whatever form.
2. Work with Labour link and lobby government to highlight some of the poor alternative provision provided for girls once they are excluded.
3. Work with Labour link to highlight with local MP’s the impact on women/ girls of this increase in exclusion and EHE.