Everything you need to know about School Suspensions in 2024

How are we getting on with school suspensions in England’s schools?

Here are seven key points from the latest Department for Education data on school suspensions.

There are 8.5 million pupils in England’s schools that form part of the data.

1. Suspensions are higher than pre-Covid and are rising fast

Suspensions dropped during the two lockdown years. Then, in the early post-pandemic period, there was some catching up to do with behaviour and social skills. So, it’s not surprising that suspensions rose in 2021-22. However, they continue to rise steeply.

School suspension rates by year group (England, 2016-23). They show a sharp increase in school suspensions from Y6 to Y7, as well as sharp increases in suspension rates since the pandemic.

Can the continuing growth be because of Covid? If not, what other factors are driving the increase?

2. School Suspensions are not only a secondary issue

Suspensions have grown in every year group since pre-Covid. However, they have grown at different speeds in different year groups.

Foundation Stage and Y1 have seen the fastest growth in suspensions, up 64% compared to pre-Covid rates, albeit the number of suspensions is still lowest in these year groups. In fact, suspensions are up in every single primary year group. Therefore, suspension rates are not only an issue for secondary schools.

ALT: Chart shows rise % in suspension rates in each year group from Foundation Stage to Year 11. In Foundation Stage / Y1, rates are up by 64%.
FS/Y1: +64.6%
Y2: +36.1%
Y3: +15.2%
Y4: +18.7%
Y5: +27.1%
Y6: +33.9%
Y7: +54.6%
Y8: +48.4%
Y9: +43.7%
Y10: +34.0%
Y11: +35.8%

In fact, when we look at the pattern of suspensions in FS/Y1 and Y8, the relative growth is almost identical.

Shows the growth each year of suspensions in both Foundation Stage/Y1 and also Y8. The Growth looks the same, albeit the starting point for the younger children is a lower number of suspensions.

Remove the titles and you’d struggle to tell the difference. Suspensions rising fast amongst our youngest children is a worry.

3. Who gets suspended?

Boys are suspended much more than girls, but look at how the orange section changes between primary and secondary.

Three pie charts showing proportion of boys vs girls who were suspended at least once from schools in 2022-23 academic year.
Primary suspensions: Boys = 83%; Girls = 17%
Secondary suspensions: Boys = 62%; Girls = 38%
Special school suspensions: Boys = 88%; Girls = 12%

The change in the proportion of girls who are suspended in secondary school is partly due to an increase in suspensions for disruptive behaviour in secondary (rather than violence).

At first glance, a surprising proportion of special schools suspensions are boys. However, 70%+ of our special school pupils are boys so it’s not a surprise that more boys are suspended. Also, boys are 85% of special school pupils with SEMH (SEMH is the most often suspended SEND).

Free School Meals (FSM)

Children from hard up families are also more likely to be suspended. Almost 25% of our pupils were eligible for FSM, yet almost 50% of suspended pupils were eligible for FSM.

Two pie charts reflecting 2022-23 academic year:
1. Proportion of pupils in England who were eligible for Free School Meals (23.8%).
2. Proportion of pupils suspended at least once who were eligible for free school meals (48.8%).

Even if a pupil is not eligible for FSM, household income makes a difference: Suspension rates fall as wealth increases.

Graph shows that the percent of pupils who have at least one suspension decreases as pupils become less deprived.

Ethnicity

Suspension rates vary between different ethnic groups. Some of this correlates with deprivation (i.e. some ethnic groups experience more deprivation than others). We can see this when we look at suspension rates and eligible for FSM together.

Shows that suspensions generally decline for different ethnic groups that have lower levels of eligibility for free school meals. There are some exceptions to this, for example pupils who are Bangladeshi have lower rates of suspension than expected.

Whilst deprivation explains some variation, it doesn’t explain it all. Therefore, we should redouble our efforts in this area – especially with traveller families.

4. Why do pupils get suspended?

Schools list one or more reason for the suspension. In both primary and secondary, the top reason given is persistent disruptive behaviour. In special schools, it’s assault against an adult.

Pie charts show number one reason for suspension from school in 2022-23 academic year in three different school types. Primary: Persistent disruptive behaviour = 29.2% Secondary: Persistent disruptive behaviour = 51.9% Special: Assault against an adult = 24.1%

5. Is the growth of school suspensions driven by a handful of secondary schools?

There are some schools that have very high suspension rates. They tend to:

Be in an Ofsted category
Serve areas of higher deprivation (though not always the case)
Have a high number of vacant places
Have had a recent change of head teacher.

Such schools and, in some cases their academy trust, are definitely part of the rise. However, they are not the full story.

The rises are too big for it to be those organisations alone. In fact, suspension rates increased in almost 70% of secondary schools.

This graph shows how suspension rates are decreasing vs increasing. It’s a bar chart with 3410 bars – one for every secondary school. It shows the two parts of the trend very well (30% of secondary schools suspending fewer pupils, and 70% suspending more pupils).

Shows proportion of secondary schools where suspension rates increased (70%) vs secondary schools where suspension rates fell (30%). Based on 3410 schools.

6. When do school suspensions peak?

News stories can sometimes give an impression of ‘crack downs in the new school year’. However, the data doesn’t show any such September spike. In fact, suspensions come in half-termly waves – followed by a summer ripple.

Other interesting points from this graph, based on 2023-24 DfE attendance data:

Overall, school suspension rates were higher in spring than autumn.
Suspensions peak on Fridays.
The longer the school holiday, the more suspensions fall. Does staff or pupil fatigue cause suspensions? Would a shorter summer break and longer breaks during the year help us manage behaviour?
May Day bank holiday seems to reduce suspensions for the next two weeks.

Shows how school suspensions typically rise as half term progresses. Increase is most pronounced in spring term. Also shows a pattern of suspension rising between Monday and Friday, before falling back on the following Monday. Uses attendance data for 2023-24 school year.

7. Are rising suspensions because of societal changes?

If societal change is causing more suspensions, might this be reflected in police data? After all, issues that affect pupils in school will affect them outside of school as well.

Shows declining pattern of arrests of under 20s since 2013 – albeit the number of arrests for 10-17 year olds has risen slightly in the last two years.

The data doesn’t support the idea that social change is driving our higher suspensions:

The number of young people being arrested has fallen since 2013.
For 10-17 year olds, they fell during covid and haven’t yet returned to their pre-pandemic levels.

Furthermore, special school suspensions have not shown the same pattern. If societal changes were a significant factor, wouldn’t they also affect suspensions from special schools?

Shows special school suspension rates have fallen since 2013 and, whilst they’ve risen in the two years up to 2023, they remain lower than historic rates (and the increases are no way near as steep as those seen in mainstream primary and secondary schools).

Conclusion

Compared to the last 17 years, our suspensions are very high. The rise is showing no sign of levelling off, rather it seems to be accelerating.

These rises affect some groups more than others. That is because we suspend a higher rate of:

Boys
Y9s and Y10s
Pupils who are more disadvantaged

No one has all the answers. The idea of suspensions isn’t bad: Sooner or later, all head teachers will be faced with the tough decisions to suspend pupils. But, the data does pose questions, such as:

Is suspension becoming normalised?
How many pupils would we suspend before it is ‘too high?’
When should we expect strict behaviour policies to have an impact which shows in the data?

More to broaden your mind…

Take a look at these articles or pick your own from our blog page.

New Academy Schools: The state of play in Nine Graphs

Great news about Teenage Pregnancy: A Real Success Story

Chat GPT: How can schools use it to make a better world for pupils?

Or, check out our similar earlier analysis on suspensions for the previous year.

References

All charts use gov.uk statistics:

Main data source: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england
When do school suspensions peak: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/pupil-attendance-in-schools
Arrest data: Arrests open data tables: police powers and procedures, year ending 31 March 2023