Students who are suspended due to bad behaviour are less likely to be sent home where they sit on their phones or on social media under a tightening of the rules
Students who are suspended due to bad behaviour are less likely to be sent home where they sit on their phones or on social media under a tightening of the rules.
Ministers warned kids are being suspended from school where they often go home to “unfettered access” to friends and online gaming.
But under a shake-up of the rules, headteachers will be given new guidance to ensure pupils facing suspension for non-violent behaviour continue learning in a separate, supervised setting.
Internal suspensions – where a child is taken out of class but kept on site – are currently informal and inconsistently applied, the Department for Education (DfE) said. Pupils are often isolated and set generic work that does not support their learning or reintegration.
Updated guidance will set clearer expectations, ensuring internal suspension is a short, structured intervention with meaningful learning and time for reflection.
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Pupils will complete the work they would otherwise miss, supporting continuity of learning and reducing pressure on teachers to recover lost time, the DfE said.
More than 335,000 children were suspended in the 2024/25 autumn term, the most recent official data shows. It is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, with 178,400 suspensions in the 2019/2020 autumn term.
The DfE said suspensions, which were introduced 40 years ago, long before smartphones and social media, are no longer enforcing punishment or re-engaging pupils.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Time out of school doesn’t just disrupt learning – it can have a huge impact on a young person’s life chances.
“Suspensions will always play a critical role in helping heads manage poor behaviour, but time at home today can too easily mean children retreating to social media, gaming and the online world instead of serving their punishment.
“That has devalued suspensions and led to high levels of lost learning. We want to restore suspensions as the serious sanction they should be, while keeping young people engaged in their education and reducing the time teachers spend helping pupils catch up.”
Headteachers will retain full professional discretion over behaviour decisions, including whether to use an internal suspension, to suspend externally or to enforce a permanent exclusion.
Elsewhere, ministers confirmed 93 schools are now part of the Attendance and Behaviour hubs programme. The scheme sees leading schools with a proven record of turning around behaviour and attendance problems support other schools in improving absence or behaviour issues.
Schools facing the most acute challenges will receive intensive support from a lead school, including one-to-one sessions with leaders and staff.
Matt Wrack, General Secretary of teachers’ union NASUWT , raised concerns that removing home suspensions may weaken it as a form of punishment. He said: “While keeping pupils on site can support learning and early intervention, staff in schools will rightly be concerned that any attempt to remove the option of sending pupils home may weaken the deterrent effect of serious sanctions.
“External suspension has long acted as a clear signal to pupils and families that behaviour has crossed an unacceptable line. Any measure that may undermine the ability of schools to establish and maintain good discipline in schools will not be welcomed by teachers or parents.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Many schools already use internal exclusions – where the pupil continues to learn in a separate, supervised setting within the school – to manage challenging behaviour short of an off-site suspension.
“It is important that this is genuinely helpful and does not merely create yet more administrative burdens on school leaders and their staff. It is also imperative that any new expectations are backed up with sufficient resources and that schools are not once again left having to do more with less.”