Iain Dale (who I normally have a lot of time for, due both to his blog and his contributions to late night BBC Radio Five Live) has picked up on a post from Stephen Pollard about Charles Clarke's plan to share out disruptive pupils amongst all the schools of an LEA (Local Education Authority) instead of just in those schools that have empty spaces. He calls it a ridiculous piece of social engineering, I call it practical and sensible. You can see my comment to his post here.
I do have hands-on experience of this issue, I was expelled from a school at the age of nine for assaulting a teacher. My recollection of the discussions on where to place me are a bit vague, I believe that there was a suggestion that I go to a local special school but that didn't come to anything, then I was all set to go to another middle school, but at the last minute the headteacher of a more local and better school stepped in. Luckily for me my good CAT scores counted for more than my disruptive behaviour (1) and while no-one could say that it was plain sailing from there, it was easier than it could have been.
(1) Note, standardised school tests are nothing new, certainly all Southampton middle schools were doing them in the early 80s, my good scores were more to do with the fact I was born towards the end of the school year and they divided the raw scores by a pupils age than any inbuilt intelligence.
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