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New principal at Norwich primary temporarily excludes nine pupils in first few days

Norwich Primary Academy, on Clarkson Road. Picture: Google Archant

The new principal of a Norwich primary school has temporarily excluded almost 10 children in his first week.

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Damian Weare, principal at Norwich Primary Academy, has issued nine fixed-term exclusions since he started at the school on Monday, after the half term break.

Parents say they believe the figure is higher, but the Inspiration Trust, which runs the school, said seven had been issued on Monday, and two since then.

Mr Weare said exclusions had been made for “extremely poor behaviour”, and had not been an easy decision to reach.

Lisa Butcher’s six-year-old son Tristen was temporarily excluded from the school on Monday.

She said her son, who is awaiting an assessment for autism and ADHD, had been running around the school, but found it difficult to explain to Mr Weare what had happened.

“He takes a long while to get to know somebody, and when the headteacher tried to talk to him and sort it out, he just put his head in my arm,” she said.

Fellow mum Ruth Robinson got in touch on Facebook to say that her daughter, who also has autism and ADHD, had also been given a fixed-term exclusion.

Mr Weare said: “We have had a small number of fixed term exclusions of up to three days for extremely poor behaviour, some of which has left staff injured and damaged furniture.

“We need to protect the safety of other pupils and staff and ensure that all our pupils, the vast majority of whom are very well behaved, can get on with learning undisturbed.

“Exclusion is never a step we want to take, and we are working with pupils and their families to help tackle bad behaviour before it gets to that stage.”

There are two types of exclusion - permanent and fixed term. The latter sees the school set the exclusion for a fixed number of days.

Mr Weare was formerly vice-principal at the trust’s East Point Academy in Lowestoft.

Norwich Primary Academy, on Clarkson Road, was rated good in its latest Ofsted report, in 2015, then run by former principal Tessa Holledge.

It was already an academy at that point, having converted and joined the trust in 2013.

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