Panels 'should lose power to reinstate expelled pupils'

Exclusion appeal panels should lose their power to order schools to take suspended or expelled pupils back into the classroom, teachers said yesterday.

The National Union of Teachers' annual conference in Harrogate voted overwhelmingly in favour of limiting their powers to recommending that schools should be asked to review their expulsions.

The move follows a number of cases in which teachers have refused to teach unruly pupils sent back to school, including one at Glynn Technology College in Surrey last autumn when two pupils who made death threats against teachers were reinstated. The two boys eventually left the school.

A report to the conference showed there had been 32 cases in the past year in which teachers had balloted on industrial action as a result of appeal panels vetoing exclusions. These included one youngster who had brought a pistol to school andseveral cases involved pupils who had assaulted teachers.

Doug McAvoy, the union's general secretary, said: "We want [the panels] to be in a position where they could ask the school to look again at its decision – and possibly identify the reasons why they should review it.''