The list of exclusions from schools in Wales includes children as young as four and five as teachers warn of violence and behaviour crisis
Schools in Wales have permanently excluded 92 children and teenagers this academic year. Most were expelled for assaulting teachers and other pupils or for verbal aggression and threats.
Thousands more have been issued with fixed term exclusions, mostly for disruptive behaviour, but also for violence, including the youngest reception class children aged four to five. Data from local education authorities, provided to WalesOnline under a Freedom of Information request, reveals more than 360 pupils were permanently excluded between September 2023 to March this year, including 92 between September 2025 and March 2026.
The true figure will be higher as only half of councils asked responded to the FOI and one declined to. Read the biggest stories in Wales first by signing up to our daily newsletter here.
The worrying exlusion statisics come as teaching unions warn of a behavior crisis in schools with some walking out in protest. There have also been high profile court cases for pupils attacking staff.
Reasons for the thousands of fixed term exclusions include violence, verbal threats, racist abuse, sexual misconduct, damage to property, theft, drugs and alcohol.
There is no category in Wales for for bringing weapons or bladed articles into schools among reasons for excluding pupils and one catch-all “other” category. Cases of pupils bringing knives and weapons into schools in the last three years have been reported separately however and schools issued with guidance on searching pupils.
In February this year a 15-year-old appeared in court charged with attempted murder of a teacher at Milford Haven School in Pembrokeshire following an alleged incident.
Earlier this year Flint High was placed under Estyn special measures after staff went in strike over pupil behaviour.
High profile, though unusual cases, include both teachers and pupils being stabbed. The data period covers 2024 when a 14 year-old girl used a knife to stab two teachers and a pupil at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire. She was later found guilty of three counts of attempted murder.
There have also been a number of instances of school lockdowns where threats of violence, or actual violence, occurred and police called.
Most fixed term exclusions are half to a full school day, while some run to two and three days. The law states pupils cannot be temporarily excluded for a total of more than 45 days in a school year.
School exclusions in each council area in Wales:
Fixed term exclusions:
2023-24: 2,178
2024-25: 1,590
2025 to March 26: 926
Permanent exclusions
2023-24: 18
2024-25: 10
2025-March 2026: 12
Reasons by year:
Assault/violence to learner: 242, 189, 96
Assault/violence to staff: 112, 83, 54
Bullying: 32, 16, six
Damage: 50,33, 17
Disruptive behaviour: 710, 494, 291
Drug/alcohol: 51, 31, 12
Other: 379, 383, 270
Racist abuse: 38, 28, 19
Sexual misconduct: 10, five, less than five
Verbal abuse/threatening behaviour to pupil: 82,50, 36
Verbal abuse/threatening behaviour to staff: 490,289, 139
Wales’ largest education authority was only able to provide data for 2023/24 school year. That showed for that year there were 2,712 fixed term exclusions, most for older children, but among them nearly 500 in primaries including 40 for the youngest reception class children aged four to five. Most fixed term exclusions were one day.
The same year there were 53 permanent exclusions for children aged eight to 16.
Reasons for both types of exclusion included 276 assaults on adults, 560 assaults on pupils, 588 cases of verbal abuse and threats to pupils and adults, 36 cases of racist abuse, 752 for persistent disruptive behaviour, 72 for damage and 56 for drugs/alcohol.
Anglesey
Fixed term exclusions:
2023-24: 722
2024/25: 634
2025- March 2006: 389
Permanent exclusions:
2023-24: 17
2024-25: 24
2025-March 2026: 17
Reasons (with number for each of the three school years)
Bullying : six, seven, two
Damage : 20, 13, nine
Drug and alcohol related: 14, 29, 15
Other: 110, 50, 57
Persistent disruptive behaviour: 205, 220, 131
Physical assault against a pupil: 123, 114, 68
Physical assault against an adult: 50, 32, 12
Racist abuse: 18, 15, seven
Sexual misconduct: one, three, one
Theft: two, three, zero
Verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against a pupil: 15, 28, 15
Verbal abuse/threatening behaviour against an adult: 146, 155, 83
Pembrokeshire
Fixed term exclusions:
2023-24: 606
2024-25:563
2025-26: 337
Most exclusions were older pupils but there were also hundreds among primary aged reception to year six.
Permanent exclusions:
There were less than five permanent exclusions in this three year period.
Flintshire
Flintshire only provided the number of exclusions and not the reasons for them. Its data showed that in the 2023/24 school year there were more than 130 exclusions in primaries including 20 in reception and 11 in year one. The same year there were more than 2,000 fixed term exclusions in secondaries.
In 2024/25 there were 230 exclusions in primaries and just under 2,000 in secondaries.
Fixed term exclusions:
2023-24: 1,893, including 12 in reception and 16 in year one
2024-25: 1,833 including two in reception and 11 in year one
2025-March 2026: 1,034 including two in reception and 17 in year one
Permanent term exclusions:
2023-24: 37, including two in primaries
2024-25: 19, all in secondaries
2025-March 2026: 12, all in secondaries
So far this school year in NPT there have been 76 exclusions for violence to adults and 126 for violence to pupils. In 2023/24 there were 181 exclusions for violence to adults and 318 for violence to pupils while the following year the figures 130 and 234 respectively.
Caerphilly
Fixed term exclusions:
2023-24: two, 180, including 22 for reception pupils
2024-25: 2,033
2025-to March 2026: 1,204
Permanent exclusions:
2023-24: 43 (all secondary)
2024-25: 57 (including eight in primaries)
2025-March 2026: 34 (including two in primaries)
Reasons are given for 2023-24 only. For that school year they include 16 assaults on staff in secondary schools and 48 assaults on staff in primary schools. There were also 285 exclusions for pupils assaulting other pupils and 509 for disruptive behaviour.
Powys
Fixed term exclusions:
2023-24: 811
2024-25: 667
2025-March 2026: 328 (including 17 in year one)
Permanent exclusions:
2023-24: 10 (including two in primaries)
2024-25: 19 (including two in primaries)
2025-March 2026: two
Merthyr
Fixed term exclusions:
2023-24: 687 (including 11 reception classes)
2024-25: 612 (including 15 in reception classes)
2025-26 to date 352 (including two in reception classes)
Permanent exclusions:
2023-24: 12
2024-25: nine
2025-March 2026: 10
Fixed term exclusions:
2023-24: 1,058. Of these 67 were for violence against an adult member of staff and more than 100 for violence against a pupil.
2024-25: 984 (including one in nursery and 10 in reception classes) Of these more than 100 were for violence against an adult and more than 150 violence against pupils.
2025-March 26: 494 (including two in reception)
Three fixed term exclusions over the period were for sexual misconduct, 36 for drugs and alcohol, more than 300 for verbal abuse and more than 300 for physical assault against adults or pupils.
Permanent exclusions:
2023-24: seven (all but one in secondaries) Six were for violence against staff or pupils and one “other” reasons.
2024-25: Three (two in secondaries, one in primary) two for violence against pupils/adults and one “other” reasons.
2025-March 2026: zero
Wrexham
Fixed term exclusions:
2023-24: 1,895 including 17 in reception classes and 546 in year eight.
2024-25: 2,209 including 13 in reception classes and 560 in year nine.
2025- March 2026: 1,651 including 14 in reception and 355 in GCSE year 10.
Permanent exclusions:
2023-24: 17 in years eight and nine and less than five each in years seven, 10 and 11.
2024-25: Six in year nine and less than five each in years six of primary and seven, eight and 10.
2025-March 2026: Less than five each in years seven, eight, nine and 10.
Monmouthshire: Refused FOI request for details of school exclusions.
What the law says about school exclusions in Wales
- Exclusion from maintained schools and pupil referral units in Wales is governed by the 2002 Education Act, supported by regulations made under that Act. They state that pupils should only be excluded in response to serious breaches of the school’s behaviour policy and if allowing them to remain in school “would seriously harm the education or welfareof the learner or others in the school”. Only the headteacher or teacher in charge of the school in their absence can exclude a pupil.
- On permanent exclusions the regulations say a decision to exclude a learner permanently is “serious”. It will usually be the final step in a process for dealing with disciplinary offences “following a wide range ofother strategies that have been tried without success”. It is an acknowledgement by the school “that it has exhausted all available strategies for dealing with the learner and should normally be used as a last resort”.
- Headteachers can permanently exclude a pupil for a first or one-off offence such as serious actual or threatened violence against another pupil or member of staff and use or threatened use of an offensive weapon.
- The regulations state that pupils should not be excluded for uniform breaches, more than three days at a time or for more than 45 days in a school year.
- “Unofficial” exclusions, where children are sent home or asked not to come in are unlawful. All exclusions must be officiall recorded.
- Permanently excluded pupils may be moved to other schools or the education authority arranges out of school learning.
- Families can appeal a school’s decision to exclude. If the parent, carer, pupil, governing body or local authority consider that the panel’s decision is wrong they have the right to the High Court for a judicial review.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The Welsh Government expects all exclusions to be carried out in line with the legislation, the regulations and the statutory guidance.”
Reasons for exclusions:
Schools and local education authorities are required to follow a broad set list of reasons for exclusion. These include disruptive behaviour, violence/threats of violence to adults or pupils, verbal abuse, racist abuse, sexual misconduct, drugs/alcohol, theft and damage to property. There is also a broad sweep category for “other”.
Data on weapon-related exclusions is not categorised in Wales. Some councils told WalesOnline that they would need to manually search thousands of records to identify those that reference weapons as a reason for exclusion, which would be outside the statutory 18-hour limit for work on an FOI request.
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