Nursery World - Social exclusion

How can we exclude children before they've even reached the statutory age for education?, asks Sue Cowley

Recent figures on exclusions tell a worrying story: in 2013/14 more than 2,000 children received fixed-term exclusions from nursery and Reception classes. In the same period, 30 children under the age of four were permanently excluded. Boys were over three times more likely to be excluded than girls, and children with special needs had the highest
rate of permanent exclusion. How can we exclude children, before they've even reached the statutory age for full-time education?

With the pressure on to achieve results, and prove that children are making progress towards predefined goals, it is tempting to create highly structured systems where children make rapid progress but where they have less say over what and how they learn. When busy, active children have no physical outlet for their frustrations, behaviour can deteriorate.

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