Charlotte, 8, has an IQ of 130 and is perfectly well behaved at home... so why has she been expelled from THREE schools for attacking her teachers?



Charlotte Tait has been expelled from three primary schools in Yorkshire



She has been known to slap, bite and pull the hair of her teachers



Parents say she loses her temper when she feels she is not being listened to

She is now having to be home-educated through an online programme

Eight-year-old Charlotte Tait has an IQ of 130 but she has been known to slap, bite and pull the hair of her teachers after quickly losing her temper when she feels she is not being listened to

A girl of eight with suspected autism has been expelled from three schools as her parents wait desperately for her to be assessed for special educational needs.



Charlotte Tait is extraordinarily bright, with an IQ of 130, but finds it difficult to control her temper and lashes out at pupils and teachers when upset.



Her parents, Arthur and Maxine, are convinced their daughter has Asperger’s syndrome but she is not entitled to the special teaching she needs until she is diagnosed by a doctor.

The couple, who run a soft play centre and have two younger children, have been waiting almost a year to get a medical assessment.



In the meantime, Charlotte has just been excluded from her third school after violent tantrums were too much for the teachers.



Mr Tait, 53, said: ‘We are a family that is going through hell. We are at the end of our tether.’



He and his wife, from Malton, North Yorkshire, say Charlotte’s behaviour deteriorated two years ago when a new teacher arrived and the layout of her classroom was changed.



Mrs Tait, 42, said: ‘Charlotte can’t cope with change and for her that was a huge change to her daily routine. Her behaviour deteriorated and before she was expelled we were getting calls on a daily basis.’



Charlotte’s troubles at school started taking up so much time, her parents said they had to give up their business to care for her.



She was excluded from her first school in April last year after she started pushing other children and then kicked and punched teachers who tried to stop her. She was excluded again in September last year, and last Monday her latest school had also had enough.

Despair: Charlotte's parents Arthur and Maxine Tait believe that their daughter is a sufferer of Asperger syndrome - a type of autism that means sufferers have difficulty communicating

‘The problem is that staff are not trained to look after pupils like Charlotte and so, by trying to diffuse the situation, they actually just escalate it,’ Mrs Tait said.



Last December, despairing teachers even locked Charlotte out in the playground on her own for an hour to try to calm her.



Lessons: Charlotte is now having to be home-educated through an online programme

‘We were so angry when we heard about this,’ her mother said.



‘This is just an example of how they have no concept of how to look after a child with Charlotte’s condition.



‘She views things differently to us. The slightest things can set her off, such as if she’s dressed in different coloured trousers to her sister, or if someone brushed past her. We know what sets her off and can usually stop it before it starts but other people just can’t get a grip on it.’



‘We feel completely let down by the system. The help Charlotte needs is not available and we’re having to go through hell to try and get it.’

Charlotte has now been offered a place at a special school in Cumbria in September. She would have to board during the week, because there are no suitable schools for her in North Yorkshire.

Her medical assessment is not due until October.

Mrs Tait said: ‘We’re hoping that, after she has the assessment, she will be taught ways of understanding her condition and how to manage it, so hopefully in the not too distant future she will be able to return to a school nearer home.’

She added: ‘I can’t even begin to explain the impact this has had on our family and the longer we have to wait for an assessment, the worse it’s going to get.’