A PRIMARY school has been forced to take back a pupil who was expelled after a serious assault on another boy.

The nine-year-old was permanently excluded from Newall Green Primary in Wythenshawe.

But the boy's family took the case to an appeals body - which overruled headteacher Richard Lait and said the boy should be allowed back.

Staff, however, are refusing to teach him. They say he should not be in a mainstream school.

The boy who has been described as `very violent' is having lessons on his own at the school, following a ballot on industrial action by all 20 teachers.

The attack by the Year 5 boy happened last month.

Joe Langley, from the National Association of Schoolteachers said: “This is a very violent little boy who committed a serious assault on another pupil. The headteacher and governors have acted in an exemplary way. The school has an excellent discipline policy and managers followed the correct legal procedure but unfortunately were overruled.

“We believe the boy has a right to education but he is wrongly placed in this establishment and that other arrangements should be made for him.

“It is the latest in a long line of cases where schools have been overruled. The staff are really up in arms.”

A representative from the National Union of Teachers did not want to comment.

Cost

The cost of teaching the boy is being paid for by Manchester council. Pauline Newman, the council’s director of children’s services, said: “Additional support is being provided to Newall Green Primary to allow a Year 5 pupil to be educated within the school in line with statutory requirements following his reinstatement in the school by the independent appeals panel.
The support is at an appropriate level to the pupil’s learning.”
 
Headteacher Mr Lait did not want to comment on the situation.
 
Parents who believe their children have been wrongly expelled can take the case to the independent appeals panel which has the power to overturn decisions. Made up of between three and five people, the panels are organised through local councils although are outside their control. Names of panel members are not published and their deliberations take place behind closed doors.
 
Decision to reinstate pupils are binding on schools and the can only be challenged though a judicial review in the High Court.
 
The panels have attracted controversy before. Last year, the M.E.N. reported how North Manchester School for Boys was forced to reinstate a pupil who had been expelled for carrying a knife. Frontline staff claimed the case, which drew comment from Prime Minister Tony Blair, undermined the authority of headmasters and put school safety at risk.
 
The guidance to the panels was changed in 2000 after concerns that too many pupils expelled for violence were being allowed back into schools. The new guidance stated that panels‘ should balance the interests of the excluded pupil against the interests of the whole school community’.

Alison Firth, Lib Dem education spokeswoman, said teachers should be allowed to take action if they felt schools were unsafe.

She said: “I think there needs to be more appreciation of the difficulties that staff face. If there is a concern that there are no resources to teach the pupil and there is a risk then the panel should not be overruling the headteacher.”
 
Newall Green Primary, which also has a nursery, was last inspected in June last year when it was judged to be ‘satisfactory’.

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