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In response to today's Statistical Release, Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusions From Schools and Exclusion Appeals in England, 2007/08, Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said:

It is positive to see the rate of exclusions decreasing indicating that behaviour in our schools is getting better. It is time to put to bed the myth that behaviour is deteriorating with teachers powerless to act. The truth is that we have given teachers the powers they asked for to tackle bad discipline and today’s figures, as well as the trend over the last several years, show that the action we have taken is working in improving discipline in schools.

We now have the lowest ever number of permanent exclusions since 1997 and the number of appeals lodged by parents against exclusions is down as is the number of successful appeals. This shows that headteachers’ decisions to exclude are very rarely over turned – in fact less than 1 per cent of permanent exclusions end with the pupils being reinstated to their original school, exploding the myth that violent pupils are being returned to schools due to technicalities or appeals.

Even fixed period exclusions, often called suspensions, are down showing that schools are tackling poor behaviour earlier and earlier. Programmes such as Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL), which ensures that young people understand the consequences of their actions and are taught how to respond to situations in a responsible way, have had a positive impact on discipline.

But we can always do more and that is why we have strengthened home-school agreements to make sure the worst behaved children have clear expectations of behaviour and schools can force parents to take action if they do not live up to these expectations. We are also reforming pupil referral units, which take excluded pupils, to ensure they offer a better standard of education and concentrate on working with mainstream schools to tackle poor behaviour early on before it reaches the point of exclusion.

On Academies
 
Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said:

Academies have almost identical exclusion rates to other schools with similar characteristics and the rate of exclusion for Academies is falling. When they first open they usually inherit pupils from schools that had very poor levels of discipline. New headteachers rightly take a firm stance from day one and send a strong message to the pupils that bad behaviour will not be tolerated.

Usually the exclusion rate settles down later on and returns to comparable levels to other schools in similar circumstances. The majority of academies are part of Behaviour and Attendance Partnerships, and we are currently legislating to make this compulsory.
 
Academies are often in deprived areas serving large numbers of children on free school meals or with special educational needs who we know are more likely to be excluded.

Further information

The Statistical Release in full

For more on SEAL

For more on Behaviour and Attendance Partnerships