Schools lack resources to tackle rise in poor behaviour, say heads

School leaders have said they lack the resources to manage a rising tide of challenging behaviour since the Covid pandemic, after new figures showed a significant rise in the number of pupils being suspended and expelled in England.

- Richard Adams

The figures from the Department for Education (DfE) showed that more pupils were being suspended repeatedly, and for longer periods, than before the pandemic struck in 2020 and schools were closed for most children for extended periods.

The number of suspensions issued by schools has nearly doubled, with 346,000 given in the autumn term of 2023, compared with 174,000 before the pandemic in autumn 2019.

Over the same period the number of children permanently excluded from school rose by nearly a third, leaping from 3,167 in 2019 to 4,168 in autumn last year.

The figures support reports from teachers that behaviour has continued to deteriorate since the pandemic, with the suspension rate in secondary schools jumping by a third between 2022 and 2023.