Briscoe Primary School and Exclusions.

It's been reported that Briscoe Primary School, part of the Hearts Academy Trust, has excluded nine Primary School pupils because their parents failed to attend an induction session on, amongst other things,  Health and Safety.
The Health and Safety Executive is reported to be critical of the school's action saying "there are no Health and Safety laws which would require parents to attend such a briefing".

No doubt many other issues were covered as well as Health and Safety but it would seem even then the school has acted unlawfully in excluding pupils for a week and until their parents attend a fresh briefing session.

I quote from the Department of Education's Statutory Guidance and Regulations on exclusion:

Section 12 of The Guide to the Law states:

It is unlawful to exclude for a non-disciplinary reason. For example, it would be un-lawful to exclude a pupil for a reason such as the action of a pupil's parents.

I was, for many years, the Chairman of a Local Authority School's Exclusion Appeals Panel and fully expected, with the advent of Academies, such as the Hearts Academy Trust, that situations like this would proliferate, especially given that parents can no longer appeal to an independent appeals panel such as I chaired, but only to the School Governors who, in my experience, have never failed to confirm and support a Headteacher's decision to exclude, no matter how flawed in law that decision might have been.