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The Government plans to allow schools to exclude children for up to 45 days at a time, instead of the present 15 days. Ministers hope the move, part of a package of legislation intended to deal with disruptive children, will halt the inexorable rise in permanent expulsions, now more than 11,000 a year.

Schools say part of the reason for the increase is the removal of their power to exclude disruptive children for indefinite periods.

Excluding children for just 15 days, they say, does not allow enough time for the cause of their disruptive behaviour to be addressed. Extending temporary exclusions was signalled as an option last month by Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education. PA