Dear Sam
i want to go to a school that i have been expelled from.
at the time i didn't realised how important it is and now i am at my old school i feel threatened.how do i go back to my other school. plz help
Hi there,
Being excluded or expelled from school can either be for a set amount of time (often called being "suspended") or it can be permanent. When someone is excluded permanently the school must have gone through certain procedures. There’s a period of time when you can ask for this decision to be changed – this is called an appeal - but this varies depending on where you live in the UK. After this time period there usually isn't a way to get back into a school you’ve been expelled from permanently.
There are a few reasons why a school might exclude someone. These are usually because of behaviour - it could be one serious thing someone does or a build-up of lots of times where they’ve not followed the rules. There are also things a school can't exclude someone for - these are anything to do with your grades or academic record and they can't exclude you for anything that you can't change - like your gender, race, sexuality or a disability.
There are rules a school has to stick to when excluding someone. They can't keep extending someone's temporary suspension forever. It's also against the law for a school to informally exclude you by sending you home without going through the proper procedures and recording it as an exclusion. It's difficult to exclude someone - this is because it should be the last resort.
This also means it's difficult, or not possible, to go back to a school once you’ve been permanently excluded. That might be difficult to hear but it's important to know so that you can start to work on making your current school situation the best it can be. Try to think about what it is you miss from your old school so that you can start to think about how you can make the best of your new school.
Making a fresh start can be better for you in the long run as you’ve learnt from the mistakes you made. This is an experience that others around you might not have yet and may have to learn in different ways in the future. It's good to think hard about what positive things you can take from being excluded to make your future better.
Talking about this on the message boards might be a good idea as there will be other young people who’ve been excluded from school who might be able to share their story with you. You can also talk to a counsellor any time you need to, they're there to listen and nobody is here to judge you.
Well done for sharing this with me, I hope it's helped you to think about moving forwards.
Take care.
Sam
You can talk privately to a counsellor online or call 0800 1111 for free.
You can ask me about anything you want, there's nothing too big or small. I read every single letter but I can only answer a few each week. My replies are published here on my page.
