Four Herefordshire schools are vying for the unenviable title of having excluded the most pupils for bad behaviour over the past two academic years.

A freedom of information request to Herefordshire Council revealed that both Leominster’s Earl Mortimer College and Sixth Form Centre and Kingstone High School each excluded five pupils in the last (2022/23) academic year, and a further four in the current academic year so far.

They were followed by two city secondary schools, The Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School, which excluded five last year and three this year, and The Hereford Academy, which excluded five last year and two so far in this.

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No other high schools in the county excluded more than three pupils over the period, and indeed only 17 schools, or just over a sixth of the county’s 98 primary, secondary and special schools, excluded any pupils at all.

The highest figure for a primary school was Ledbury Primary, which has excluded one pupil in each academic year.

The main reason given for the exclusions is given as “persistent disruptive behaviour”, which accounted for 25 out of the 56 total since the start of the 2022/23 year.

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A further nine were due to “physical assault against a pupil” while two in the current year are down to “use or threat of use of an offensive weapon or prohibited item”.

The information does not make clear the reasons for pupil exclusions from individual schools.

Government figures show that the total number of pupil exclusions in the county declined from 31 in 2006/07 to just seven in 2014/15, but has been creeping up again in the decade since.