Schools expel 50 pupils

Rochdale’s schools permanently excluded 50 students last year.

A total of 40 children were permanently excluded from the borough’s secondary schools, 10 from primary schools and none from special schools.

The town's exclusion rate was one of the lowest in Greater Manchester. Manchester, with 130 expulsions, removed the most children from the classroom in 2007-9, while the figure for neighbouring Oldham was 90.

Statistics released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families also show that 190 pupils were temporarily suspended from Rochdale’s primary schools, 1,670 from secondary schools and 60 from special schools.

A breakdown of the reason for suspensions locally is not given, but nationally children were given almost 90,000 fixed period exclusions for attacking classmates and teachers.

In total there were 324,180 fixed period exclusions, down 10.8%, and 8,130 permanent exclusions.