At School Legal Services (SLS) we receive enquiries from parents and carers whose children are continually being excluded from school on a fixed term basis, or have sadly been permanently excluded.
Every child has the right of access to education – a parent is also entitled to challenge unlawful and informal exclusions where a teacher sends a child home for no apparent reason, or the teacher unreasonably refuses to allow the child to return to school following a fixed-term exclusion.
In our experience, parents and carers benefit from the following types of support:
Exclusions consultation
Has your child been permanently excluded, or excluded for a fixed term basis? We understand how stressful these concerns can be so our exclusions consultation covers such vital issues as:
Advice as to how to approach the Governing Body if you wish to challenge the decision to exclude your child.
Advice as to the suitability of the steps taken by the school to help your child and to avoid the exclusion (s.) Is the school following the government’s guidance on exclusions?
Possible race and disability discrimination points.
Advice as to the strengths and weaknesses in your case if you were to appeal against the decision to the Governing Body or the Independent Appeal Panel.
Exclusions school appeals
If your child has been permanently excluded from a maintained (state) school, you can appeal to the Independent Appeal Panel for the exclusion to be lifted, or to have the exclusion removed from their school records if an alternative, more appropriate school placement has been found. This involves preparing a written statement explaining why this should be done and appearing before the panel.
If you approach us before submitting your appeal (or afterwards) we can provide numerous forms of support, such as:
Representation at appeal hearings.
Drafting documents on your behalf, such as your written statement.
Guidance as to how to go about preparing your appeal and what to expect on the day of the hearing.
Explaining the hurdles you will have the pass in your case (the technical bits put in clear layman’s terms.)
Advice as to the strengths and weaknesses of your appeal.
Advice as to what evidence to gather to strengthen your appeal.
Clear and honest advice as to the chances of success.
No obligation free discussion
We are happy to have a no obligation discussion with you about your difficulties, so feel free to call us on 0208 523 0887.
Specific and tailored support
Unlike most solicitors or barristers, and other consultancies, we do not work on a ‘9 to 5’ basis. We will regularly be talking with parents at times that are convenient for you (such as 9pm in the evening) and at weekends.
We offer a family friendly approach – we always call our clients by their first names and write in plain English, in order to make a stressful experience as pleasant and informal as possible.
Again our aim is to provide a top quality legal service in a manner that is customer and parent focused to meet your needs.
At SLS we can appreciate and understand your concerns, so please do not hesitate to contact us for a free no obligation discussion and we will explore what your options are. If you have an exclusions query, or need any particular kind of support (even if it is not one of the above forms) do get in touch as we always aim to tailor our services and support to you, as an individual.
