Education during and after pregnancy

If your child can't attend school because of pregnancy, the local education authority still has a duty to provide suitable alternative education, for example, home tuition. It would be reasonable to expect a minimum of ten hours a week. However, in practice the provision is often more limited. Many local education authorities provide only one session per week and others none at all. However, lack of resources is not a sufficient reason for the local education authority to fail to provide suitable alternative education.
If you feel that your child is not receiving suitable education because of pregnancy, you should consider taking specialist advice about what action can be taken.

The procedures which can be used to exclude a pupil from school, and the procedures by which you can challenge the decision, vary according to the sort of school your child attends. However, there is government guidance which deals with discipline and punishment, and the school must follow this when it is deciding whether or not to exclude a pupil.

Different terms are used in different schools when a pupil has been excluded, but generally the following definitions are used:

• temporary exclusion (suspension): this is usually done for disciplinary reasons and is for a fixed period - see below
• permanent exclusion (expulsion): this usually means that the pupil has been told they may no longer attend a particular school because of serious breach of discipline, or for continual disruptive behavior - see below.

It is against the law for the school to discriminate, for example because of race, sex or disability when deciding whether to exclude your child. If you think that discrimination is involved in the exclusion of your child, make sure you mention this as soon as possible in any complaint you make.

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