Internal alternative provision reduces suspensions
We were surprised and delighted to open The Times yesterday to see an article featuring Alderman Jacobs as an example of how schools' are supporting increasingly complex needs but are developing the right support for it's pupils.
Having worked with the charity The Difference to develop inclusive strategies and help children feel like they belong within the school community, Alderman Jacobs has successfully reduced suspension rates and increased internal alternative provision.
As part of Soke Education Trust's collaborative approach to learn from each other and develop aligned autonomy across our schools, Martin has been sharing his learning from working with The Difference and the strategies that have been successful so that all the schools in our trust are inclusive of the needs of our whole community.
The Times article, including the work carried out by Alderman Jacobs can be read below.
Georgia Lambert Thursday April 30 2026, 8.10pm, The Times
'The most rapid increase in those being sent home for disruptive behaviour is among young primary pupils. The number of children losing out on education through repeated suspensions has doubled in two years.
Children in the first years of primary school are driving a sharp rise in repeat suspensions, and those aged five and six are showing the fastest increases of any age group, according to Department for Education figures.
Repeat suspensions of five-year-olds rose by 62 per cent and six-year-olds by 64 per cent between autumn 2022-23 and autumn 2024-25, according to an analysis by the school leadership charity The Difference.
In total, 7,106 children under the age of six were suspended in the 2024-25 autumn term. Nearly half of suspensions of five-year-olds were repeat incidents, meaning that the same children were sent home multiple times.
Repeated suspensions have been rising in general across schools. Nearly 2,000 children were suspended ten or more times in the autumn term of 2023-24, a rise of 448 per cent since 2016-17, and 106 per cent over two years. There were another 1,100 suspensions the following term.
Among primary pupils — aged four to eleven — 590 children were suspended six or more times, equivalent to about once a week, in the autumn term of 2023-24, up 69 per cent in two years and the highest number since records began.
Overall, the number of children losing learning through repeated suspensions has doubled in two years. The data also shows that although suspensions are on average shortening, they are becoming more frequent.
The average suspended pupil is sent home 1.9 times a year, up from 1.57 in 2016-17, a rise of 21 per cent. Across all schools, persistent disruptive behaviour remains the most common reason for suspensions.
The Difference said the pattern was increasingly concentrated among the most vulnerable children, including those who lived in poverty, those with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) and those who were known to social services.
These children are also more likely to drift into the Neet category — not in education, employment or training — and previous research has shown that pupils suspended even once are twice as likely to fall into this group by the age of 24.
Children eligible for free school meals are 4.6 times more likely to be suspended, and account for 61 per cent of all suspensions. Those with Send but without a statutory education, health and care plan are 4.5 times more likely to be suspended than their non-Send peers.
Children from some ethnic-minority backgrounds also disproportionately experience suspension. Roma and Gypsy children are 3.8 times more likely to be sent home, Irish Traveller children 2.9 times more likely and children with mixed black Caribbean and white heritage 1.8 times more likely. In its schools’ white paper, the government announced plans to encourage schools to use “internal suspensions” as an alternative to manage disruptive behaviour. These involve moving pupils from regular lessons into a supervised, on-site setting for a limited period with a continued and structured approach to education.
Kiran Gill, the charity’s chief executive, said: “Today’s saddening data follows the patterns of the past few years: it’s children facing the hardest time of their lives who are being sent out of lessons most often … no head teacher wants to use suspension, it is often a last resort.”
Gill added that school leaders were increasingly trying to change the picture in their schools, using inclusion bases — dedicated spaces intended to provide support away from the classroom while keeping pupils in mainstream education — and earlier intervention, supported by the charity’s leadership programme. This year it has helped 200 leaders develop whole-school strategies to spot struggling children before their behaviour escalates.
One such school is Alderman Jacobs primary school in Peterborough, where the head teacher, Martin Fry, completed the programme in 2024 as the school was resetting its alternative provision for pupils with particularly challenging behaviour.
He moved away from a model reliant on suspensions, instead introducing a more integrated approach aimed at keeping pupils in lessons wherever possible as well as targeted support such as emotional literacy lessons to build pupil confidence in school. Martin Fry, head teacher at Alderman Jacobs primary school
“By the end of the year … four out of the six children who had previously refused to engage with core learning were participating in lessons … and achieving outcomes we would not have dared to have imagined in September,” he said. “Suspensions have fallen across the school at a time when we know they’re rising across the country.”
The government has said it wants every school to be “inclusive by design”, and the development of inclusion bases is backed by £1.6 billion in funding. However, unions have warned that this aim may be undermined by workload pressures and capacity constraints.
The National Association of Head Teachers will debate a motion at its annual conference in Belfast this weekend calling for two more statutory inset days each year, arguing that staff need more time to implement reforms to Send provision.
A DfE spokesperson said: “These statistics reflect the scale of the challenge we inherited in our schools, but there are real signs our reforms are working.
“Teachers are already reporting significant improvements, with more reporting good behaviour in classrooms in 2024-25 than the previous year. We back head teachers to take firm action when needed, and we are transforming the system with 93 new behaviour hubs, curriculum reform, a once-in-a-generation overhaul of the Send system and an evidence-led review into anti-bullying and effective behaviour management.”'