MORE than 20 children are suspended from school every day in term time, shocking new figures have revealed.
Students are sent home for offences including assaults on fellow pupils and adults, verbal abuse, racism and even drugs and alcohol offences.
In the 2011-12 academic year, 4,010 children were given a fixed-period exclusion.
Among these were 1,280 in city schools. The other 2,730 attended schools in the rest of the county.
Rob Illingworth, of the Notts division of the National Union of Teachers, said it was an increasing problem.
"It is a real balancing act between the needs of an individual student and the school overall," said Mr Illingworth, himself a teacher.
"We know schools use exclusions as a last resort and this must remain the case.
"What is important is how to provide educational quality for these children.But it is a much larger societal issue that leads to high amounts of exclusions in the city and county."
The figures showed that there were 2,270 fixed-period exclusions in Nottingham and 5,230 in the rest of Notts, meaning most suspended children suffered the same fate more than once. This was an increase of around 200 from the 2010-11 year taking the combined city and county figures into account.
Among the most common reasons were physical assaults against a fellow pupil: 362 in the city and 885 in the county; physical assaults against an adult: 121 in the city and 200 in the county; and drugs and alcohol-related issues: 55 in the city and 79 in the county.
The vast majority of exclusions were in secondary schools and academies.
Meanwhile, there were 140 permanent exclusions: 40 in the city and 100 in the county.
Councillor Liz Plant, vice-chairman of the county council's children's services committee, said they were hopeful they could reduce the figures. We want all our children and young people to be receiving their education within school whenever it is reasonable for them to do so.
"We have therefore been working closely with schools to try and reduce exclusions."
The mother of a 14-year-old boy who was temporarily excluded twice said she disagreed with the practice. "I think sometimes schools exclude children far too readily. The schools need to look carefully at how they deal with children who cause trouble."
