BADLY behaved pupils are repeatedly being allowed to return to classrooms in the south after being suspended from school because the Government has made it hard to expel them, it has been claimed.

Record numbers of children are being suspended more than ten times in a single year, according to statistics obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

They showed 38 pupils in Southampton and 31 in the Hampshire County Council area were repeatedly suspended – but none on the Isle of Wight.

Shadow Schools Minister Nick Gibb said teachers had to “battle against government rules discouraging them from expelling violent and disruptive pupils”.

However Children’s Minister Delyth Morgan said the schools inspectorate Ofsted had found behaviour in the classroom was generally good and improving.

She said: “Temporary exclusions or ‘suspensions’ can be used as a quick shock to turn around behaviour before it gets worse."