This Is What It's Like To Have Your Five-Year-Old Child Excluded From Primary School

16 July 2017, 17:51 | Updated: 17 July 2017, 07:46

The number of children under the age of seven who are excluded is on the rise.

A mother told Stig Abell what it was like to have her five-year-old son excluded from his primary school. 

She explained that shortly after her son was permanently excluded from his school, he was diagnosed with autism. 

She said: "From the school's point of view, he was a naughty child and we were bad parents who weren't disciplining him properly because you can't see his disability. He doesn't look like he has a disability."

As a result of being excluded, her son was taken out of the school system for a whole year before he was able to rejoin a mainstream school.

Siri shared her experiences after the news that the number of children under the age of seven being excluded from primary school is on the rise. 

The number of four- and five-year-olds excluded from primary schools is on the rise, according to Des Reynolds, an expert who runs schools for children asked to leave mainstream education has said.

The chief executive of the Engage Trust, which runs nine alternative provision academies, told the Sunday Times that headteachers who are preoccupied with league tables are expelling children for behaviour they would have spent time correcting in the past. 

He told the paper: "My youngest pupil is 3, and was permanently excluded from a nursery school. Our biggest growth area is the under-7s, where we are seeing big increases."

"We have created a much more academically focused system, with high levels of stress and pressure, which some of our most vulnerable children cannot cope with.

"Schools do not have time any longer to manage children who do not behave."