DfE database suggests an Inspiration Trust academy permanently excluded more children in a single year than any other primary school on record

A primary school, run by an academy chain which has been funded by the Department for Education to provide training to others on “exemplary leadership”, appears to have excluded more children permanently in a single academic year than any other primary on record.

Great Yarmouth Primary Academy, in Norfolk, controlled by the Inspiration Trust, expelled eight pupils in 2018-19. This is the most in England for that year, which is the most recent for which figures are available.

According to my analysis of DfE exclusions records, it is also the most by a primary school in England, in any one single academic year, since current records began in 2006-7.

The academy was actually one of two run by the Inspiration Trust which finished in the top 10 in England in 2018-19 ranked by the number of children permanently excluded among primary schools.

The statistics come despite Claire Heald, the trust’s director of standards, raising concerns, in an article published only this month, about the long-term impact on children who are excluded.