Rashad Ahmed*, 18, is studying for a BTEC in computing at Havering College in Hornchurch, Essex, while working part-time in a shop in Canary Wharf. He, worries that an earlier exclusion for smacking this geezer in the mouth may jeopardise his chances of finishing the course.
| I was used as an example. My course leader thinks I’m trouble. |
He was calling me names and punching me. He was getting on my nerves, so I hit him. I would have been prepared to sit down with him and work it out, but both of us were excluded for fighting - he wasn't allowed back. I just sat at home and did my assignments. I got more done that way, but it's boring at home. I'd rather have worked in the classroom.
I was used as an example. My current course leader thinks I'm trouble. I think he wants to kick me out. I'm not normally a bad boy. My class-mates think I'm a trouble-maker. I tried harder to be good when I got back, but you can't help being yourself. What I did was stupid, but all this is unfair. If I was a teacher, I'd counsel pupils one on one and see how they progressed, help them get along. I've since met the boy I hit and we just started talking, we sorted it out. It's a shame that didn't happen sooner.
Jonathan Lyle*, 16, who was excluded six or seven times while he was at secondary school, agrees that teachers need to develop a different relationship with their pupils if exclusions are going to be cut. He now works as an accounts assistant at Barclays Bank in central London.
I started getting excluded in the first year at secondary school for something like fighting. It degenerated from there because I got a bad name for myself. Although I consistently achieved good results, teachers took every opportunity to knock me down.
Being excluded didn't change my behaviour at all, it just turned me off education. Why do you think I left school at 16 to work?
* Names have been changed
About the team
This article was produced by the Children's Express London bureau, and published in The Independent.
