CHURCH Stretton School leads the way in using temporary exclusion as a punishment for unruly pupils, with more exclusions than any other school in south Shropshire.

Physical aggression to other pupils and verbal abuse to staff were the main reasons for a 269 days of temporary exclusions of district secondary school pupils in the year ending March 2004.

The figures were in a report presented to this month's county education scrutiny panel meeting.

A breakdown of the figures shows Bishop's Castle Community College (school population 550); 48 exclusion days, Ludlow School (850 pupils); 89, Lacon Childe (570 pupils); 31 and Church Stretton (728 pupils); 101.

John Allin, head of Church Stretton, said the number of exclusions were not that high when compared with averages nationally.

"We are much bigger than Lacon Childe and the numbers are not an issue," he added.

"We work closely with parents and exclusion is something we would use only after very careful consideration.

"We are constantly monitoring this situation. There were a lot of sensitive areas that had to be dealt with last year."

Dr Gill Eatough, head of Lacon Childe School, in Cleobury Mortimer, said the 31 exclusion days at her school revolved around only eight children.

"I only use temporary exclusion as a final punishment," she added. "Having said that, we always exclude for smoking and my pupils know this. The other major crimes would be fighting, abusing a member of staff or persistent disruptive behaviour. If you exclude too often it gives a negative message you can't deal with the problem."

Dr Eatough said the school notified parents in writing of the intended exclusion and asked them in to discuss the matter.

"Most are shocked to find out their child is being excluded," she said. Drugs and tobacco played a small part in the figures, said the report.

Other reasons for exclusion - usually five days, but in some cases longer - included being rude and disrespectful to staff, general disruption of classes, defiance, physical abuse of staff and lack of respect for school authority and disciplinary rules.

Roughly three times as many boys as girls were excluded.

In Shropshire 2,013 secondary pupils and 130 primary school pupils were disciplined compared with 1,926 and 115 respectively the previous year.

n Opinion: P10