Letter About a Child's Exclusion or Suspension from School

If your child has been given a suspension or exclusion from school, as a parent you may have serious concerns about how to respond and how to find out more about the circumstances surrounding the suspension or exclusion. Most schools will recommend that the parents come into the school for a meeting to discuss the child's punishment, the reasons behind it and the child's re-entry into school; if not, you should write to the school to inquire about setting up a meeting. Exclusion and suspension means that a child has been told he or she is not permitted to attend school for a certain period of time. The Education Act 2002 and other regulations contain a set of rules surrounding exclusion and suspension that a school should work with closely.

Types of Exclusion and Suspension

This will usually occur in two different ways. A school exclusion will usually either be for a short, set period or a permanent measure. The first type may include lunchtime exclusions, where the child has to follow set procedures, for example not being on school property, during lunchtimes, but when the end of the exclusion period comes about, the pupil must return to school. If a child is excluded or suspended from school for more than that period of one day, you should expect your child's teacher to set work, in order to decrease the likeliness that the child will be left behind. Most schools will not exclude a pupil for more than 50 days in any school year. Under the terms of a permanent exclusion, however, the pupil will not be allowed to receive an education from the school (unless an appeals panel or governing body overturns the child's exclusion). Schools have a responsibility to provide permanently excluded pupils with an alternative education, through ensuring the child is registered at another school, or receives his or her education through the provisions of a Pupil Referral Unit, or receives home tuition.

This letter format laid out below shows how parents can write to a school to ask about scheduling a meeting to discuss the circumstances and effects of a child's temporary exclusion for a period of one week for an act of bullying. The letter can be used as an example of the kinds of tone to contact a school to ensure the best kind of response.

The School House
School Lane
Schoolfellow
England

Parental Address
Family Home
Anytown
England

1 May 2008

Dear Headteacher

I am writing to you as the care-giver in charge of Kimberly Ridge's education. Kimberly, as you know, was temporarily excluded from school for the period of five days from yesterday after she behaved poorly towards other students.

I consider this exclusion - and Kimberly's behaviour in general - something that should be addressed further and in order to deal with the situation effectively I would really appreciate the opportunity to come into visit you and Kimberly's form teacher to talk further about what we can do to help improve her behaviour and academic attainment, and how best to fill her time in the coming week of exclusion. I appreciate you are very busy but would really hope you are able to meet with me as soon as possible.

You can contact me, Virginia, on 0191 2343 9049 or 0723422342, or email me at virginia@mail.com, and hopefully we can quickly arrange a convenient time to meet and help get Kimberly back on track at school.

With thanks for your time and best wishes

[signature]

Mrs Virginia Smith, care giver of Kimberly Ridge