Academy trust cuts sanction for children with “inappropriate hairstyles” from three days in isolation to two

Pupils at the Gorse Academies Trust also face “isolation” for “lines in their eyebrows,” for uniform violations, or for forgetting their student planner twice, its behaviour policy states. However, the chain running academies in Leeds has reduced the severity of some of its sanctions, which faced scrutiny this summer during a judicial review case brought by three pupils. Meanwhile, Michaela Community School can place children in “referral” for offences over uniform, hairstyle and “damaging the School’s reputation”.

 

A prominent multi-academy trust has reduced the sanction it enforces when a child arrives with an “inappropriate hairstyle” – though the young person still faces two full days in “isolation” for this violation of its rules.

The Gorse Academies Trust, which operates 15 schools in Leeds, has cut this penalty from three days in isolation to two, its behaviour policy for 2025-26 states. It has also reduced the number of successive days a child might face in “isolation” for repeat offences during a half-term, and the number of days they have to serve in the facility following a suspension.

Gorse also sends pupils to its “isolation” room for forgetting their organisation planner twice, and for having lines in their eyebrows, its current behaviour policy states.

The trust faced media attention over the summer, when three children at its John Smeaton Academy brought a judicial review challenge against the implementation of its isolation policies, which see pupils spending the school day working in silence in a room, without being allowed to socialise with their friends. Although the judge described what the trust describes as isolation as “stigmatising” and “deliberately understimulating,” Gorse won the case.

Meanwhile, another high-profile institution, Michaela Community School in Wembley, north London, has a behaviour policy which states that children can be put in what it calls its “referral” room for having an “inappropriate hair style”.

These policies seem to underline that removal from lessons for protracted periods can happen not just when a child is “abusive or ruining the education of others,” as the Department for Education’s school behaviour ambassador claimed 10 days ago.