Permanent exclusions down in 2020/21 academic year

According the latest DfE data, there were 3,900 permanent exclusions in the 2020/21 academic year. This is over 1,000 permanent exclusions lower than in the 2019/20 academic year when there were 5,100 permanent exclusions and around half the number of permanent exclusions in the last full academic year before the pandemic (7,900 in 2018/19). This gives a permanent exclusions rate of 0.05, this is the equivalent of 5 permanent exclusions for every 10,000 pupils.

Meanwhile, there were 352,500 suspensions in the 2020/21 academic year. This is an increase from the previous year, when 310,700 suspensions occurred, but is still lower than pre-pandemic levels (438,300 in 2018/19). This gives a suspensions rate of 4.25, the equivalent of 425 suspensions per 10,000 pupils.
Suspension and permanent exclusions reasons

The most common reason across all permanent exclusions was persistent disruptive behaviour, recorded 1,500 times (against 39% of permanent exclusions). The same reason was also the most common across all suspensions, recorded 148,400 times (against 42% of suspensions).