Is your child spending  a lot of the day in isolation or working with a TA outside of the classroom? Perhaps in the corridor?

Has the school insisted that it would be in the child’s best interests if they started to come in for part of the day?  Your child is then on a part-time timetable that you felt forced to agree with?

Or perhaps the school always calling you and asking you to pick your child up? Maybe they have ‘broken the rules’, there has been a serious incident, they are in meltdown, or, again, they are not coping?

Unless a child cannot cope with full time education for documented medical reasons, or has an EHCP with a dual schooling arrangement, all these practices are mostly unlawful. They are an indication that the school isn’t meeting your child’s needs and lead to your child having a disrupted or part-time education.

Many types of SEND manifest themselves in behaviour that is seen as an issue, e.g. lack of organisation, attention problems, meltdowns, social communication difficulties meaning lack of understanding of boundaries etc. Children or young people can also suffer from anxiety that sees with with high levels of emotional dysregulation and an emotional- based avoidance of school or inability to attend school.

If a child is not coping in school, the appropriate response should be to consider what extra help is needed rather than to send a child home.

If your child is excluded,  then this should be a last resort and there are regulations outlining what should happen.