The number of Shropshire pupils permanently expelled from school is the lowest for 10 years, education watchdogs have been told.

During the past year permanent exclusions from Shropshire Council schools have fallen by 50 per cent, from 30 to just 15. This says a report is “exceptionally pleasing”.

Of the 15 kicked out, 13 were boys. The report says that only one pupil was from a primary school.

Two of the children had statements of special educational needs and one was from a minority ethnic group.

None of the children were in the care of the council. “There were no permanent exclusions involving substance or alcohol misuse,” says the report.

“As the number of permanent exclusions is so low and 11 different reasons are given, an analysis of those reasons would not be productive.

“Generally, permanent exclusions in Shropshire are issued for various forms of aggressive or destructive behaviour.”

The total number of fixed-term exclusions issued was 1,579 involving 863 pupils, a slight decrease in both numbers from the previous year.

Figures show that 3,276 days were lost to exclusion, a decrease of 309.5 days.

“The number of days lost to exclusion has decreased each year since 2004/05 when the number of days lost was 6,696,” says the report.

“This demonstrates a real commitment from schools to seek alternatives to exclusion and to ensure that pupils are supervised and purposefully engaged.

“Exceptionally, only four fixed-term exclusions of more than five days were issued.”

Boys accounted for 76 per cent of fixed-term exclusions which is in line with previous years.

The majority of exclusions occurred in secondary school, in Years 9 to 11.

The most common reasons were physical aggression to other pupils; verbal abuse of staff and rudeness or disrespect towards staff.

In the Shrewsbury area, fixed term-exclusions fell by 30 in secondary schools and by 31 in primary schools. South Shropshire exclusions fell by 76 in secondary and one in the primary sector.But in north Shropshire there was an increase of 131 in secondary and 81 in primary schools.

The report is to be presented to the children and young people’s services scrutiny committee on Wednesday .

By Dave Morris