Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told the BBC he welcomed greater consistency but had some concerns.
“The fear for head teachers will be how will they be held to account for the data that they share [and] how can they make sure that they’ve got the resources and investment to do the best possible job for internal seclusions and internal exclusions – because all of that requires a lot of investment,” he said.
Matt Wrack, general secretary of NASUWT teachers’ union, said there was an opportunity to “offer helpful clarity” for schools, but questioned “how these expectations will be fulfilled in every school in the absence of any additional funding or resources to support these measures”.
Marianne Lagrue, a policy manager at Coram Children’s Legal Centre, said existing approaches to internal suspensions and removing pupils from classrooms varied.
She said “worst case scenarios” existed where children were being kept in isolation away from friends and the classroom for months “without being suspended or excluded formally”.
Isolation could be particularly difficult for pupils with certain types of Send, she added.
“We hope that with the Schools White Paper… the Department for Education will take the opportunity to make sure that those children get better support rather than just being isolated in a room with no stimulation.”