Four-year-olds excluded over violence

Children were excluded for offences including biting other students and attacking school staff. Fourteen of the schools visited by Ofsted reported problems with pupils' sexualised behaviour.

Teachers told Ofsted that the young children who were excluded had all experienced varying degrees of trauma. Many had experienced family breakdown or domestic violence. In one case a child who saw his mother killed in a refugee camp before moving to England was excluded for bad behaviour.

The watchdog is now calling on government to investigate the availability of mental health support for young children who have suffered extreme trauma.

Ofsted also wants the Department for Children, Schools and Families to draw up guidance for schools urgently, to help them respond to sexually inappropriate behaviour in children in partnership with social services.

Chief inspector Christine Gilbert said schools should exclude fewer young people.

She said: "Exclusion of children aged under seven is still very rare. Ofsted inspectors found that almost all children in the schools they visited knew how to behave properly. Only a small number of children found this difficult but, with proper guidance and support, the need to exclude them can be avoided."

But Chris Keates, general secretary of teaching union NASUWT described Gilbert's comments as "risible".

She said: "Ofsted implies that exclusion is inappropriate for pupils of primary school age. If behaviour is inappropriate, is impacting adversely on the educational progress of the majority of pupils and other strategies have failed, then the age of the pupil is immaterial. This report is likely lead to more schools being reluctant to exclude and the majority of pupils and their teachers having to face the consequences in terms of educational progress, health and wellbeing."