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Exclusions from schools 2008-09
26/01/2010
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published a range of statistics relating to exclusions from Scotland's schools.
The main findings are:
- During 2008-09 there were 33,917 cases of exclusion from local authority schools in Scotland, a decrease of 15 per cent from 2007-08 (39,717 exclusions). Over 99 per cent of all exclusions were temporary. In 87 cases, pupils were removed from the register of the school (a decrease of 47 per cent from the 2007-08 figure of 164)
- To aid comparisons over time and between local authorities the number of cases of exclusions can also be expressed as number of cases exclusions per 1,000 pupils. The latest Scottish figure of 49.9 cases per 1,000 pupils is a significant drop from the 57.5 cases per 1,000 pupils reported in 2007-08
- Across Scotland the rates of exclusions vary significantly - from 103 cases per 1,000 pupils in Dundee to 10 cases per 1,000 pupils in East Renfrewshire
- The likelihood of being excluded is higher for those pupils who live in areas of greater deprivation, who have additional support needs or who are looked after by the local authority
- About 18,100 different pupils (three per cent of pupils) were excluded during the year (percentage unchanged from previous year)
Nearly all of this publication refers to cases of exclusion, which must not be confused with the number of pupils excluded, as some pupils were excluded more than once during the year.