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Autumn term suspensions increase by almost 100,000

Behaviour Pastoral issues
There has been an almost 100,000 increase in the number of autumn term suspensions year-on-year, with persistent disruptive behaviour by far the most common reason and disadvantaged and SEN students by far the more likely to be involved.
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Figures published by the Department for Education (DfE, 2024) show that 346,279 students were suspended in the autumn term 2023.

This is up by 98,900 from the previous year when 247,366 were suspended. It is also up from around 178,400 in autumn 2019 – before the pandemic struck.

The data shows that the suspension rate during autumn 2023 ran at 4.13 per 100 students – up from 2.96 in autumn 2022.

Likewise, permanent exclusions followed a similar trend with 4,168 in autumn 2023 (1 for every 2,000 students) compared with 3,104 in autumn 2022 (1 for every 2,500 students).

The most common reason for both suspensions and permanent exclusions was persistent disruptive behaviour, which accounted for 50% of all reasons given for suspensions and 36% of reasons given for permanent exclusions (up to three reasons can be given for each suspension and exclusion).

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