§ Mr. RosindellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the Government's policy on pupil exclusions. [146665]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe Government are investing in a wide-ranging programme of measures to improve standards of behaviour and to develop and encourage the use of alternatives to exclusion. But exclusion must 311W continue to be one of the sanctions for serious misbehaviour available to schools. And, when a head excludes for good reasons, that decision should not be overturned. We have therefore reformed the legislation governing exclusion appeal panels to strike a better balance between the interests of the individual pupil and those of the school community as a whole.