CITY academies have criticised plans to charge schools £15,000 for each student they exclude following a sharp rise in numbers.
In the last full school year, 94 students at primary and secondary schools in Nottingham were excluded – up by 55 on the previous year.
The city council is now seeking to re-introduce charging £14,900 after every second permanent exclusion from any school. The money collected would be used by the council to set up and fund further provisions for excluded students.
Since 2009, Djanogly City Academy has excluded 58 students, including 12 last year and eight so far this term.
Principal Dave Hooker said: "I would be against paying it and would be advising directors of the trust not to pay it. "This charge can be up to four times as much as a school receives in yearly funding for each pupil. from the Education Funding Agency. This means that by applying this exclusion charge, the council is effectively taking funding away from well-behaved students. This is a situation we do not believe is fair or sustainable as we work hard to make the academy an outstanding school."
The academy was placed in special measure by schools watchdog Ofsted last year but during the latest inspection this month it found that "the new academy leadership team have brought about significant, rapid improvement across the academy".
The number of exclusions in all primary and secondary schools this year is 40. Last year, 13/14 if the charge had been in place, the amount recovered from schools would have been £715,200. In the 2012-13 school year, the money recovered by the council was £178,800 for 27 exclusions. The charge was then scrapped due to changes in school funding.
Bulwell Academy has been named by the council as having excluded the second most students, with 34 since 2009.
Principal Paul Halcro said: "I think that if schools were told what the money was used for, it would be better. We want to work with the local authority and other schools in the area and we do not want to exclude anyone but unfortunately sometimes it is the only option to maintain high standards."
The council's schools forum was due to discuss reintroducing the charge on Thursday but members pushed back the decision until next year.
Principal Peter Brown, at Top Valley Academy, which has excluded 19 students in the past five years, said: "Almost £15,000 per student is a huge amount of money. Our intention is to always keep exclusions to a minimum but cost is never a factor and we always do what is best for the school. "We are not keen to pay nearly £15,000 per student but this would not prevent us from excluding a pupil if it had to come to that. I am not in favour of the cost but I do also understand there is a cost involved to educate those that have been excluded."
Pat Fielding, director of education for the city council, said: "This item was removed from the agenda ahead of the meeting so that we can do more work on the proposal. We plan to have it on the agenda in the New Year at the request of members of the Schools Forum, where it can be debated more comprehensively." To see a breakdown of exclusions from city schools visit click here.
