YOUNG people at risk of being thrown out of class are receiving the help they need, say Bury's education bosses after published figures showed violent behaviour, drugs and alcohol issues in class accounted for a quarter of all school exclusions in Bury.

More than 1,200 exclusion notices were handed out in state-maintained primary and secondary schools for such behaviour between 2015/16 and 2017/18.

And department for education figures show the number of total exclusion notices being handed out by schools has risen year-on-year in the same time period ­— from 1,124 to 2,136.

Cllr Tamoor Tariq, cabinet member for children and families, said: “Trouble-making and assault in schools is completely unacceptable and action must be taken to curb it, including exclusions. At the same time, every child needs and deserves an education and we need to ensure that they can remain in school wherever possible.

“The council and Bury schools are committed to working together to address students’ needs and reduce both fixed term and permanent exclusions.

“Over the past 18 months, SEMH (Social, Emotional, Mental, Health) partnerships have been established at both primary and secondary level in order to achieve this, with schools working collaboratively and with services such as Early Help, Youth Service and Healthy Young Minds.

“As a result, the latest figures show considerable improvement on the figures in the Bury Times article.

“The vast majority of exclusions are for very short fixed-term periods – the average length of these exclusions is less than one school day. The total has dropped in Bury from 2,136 to 1,896 in 2018/19.

“Even more significantly, the number of permanent exclusions has dropped by 75 per cent from 2016/17 to 2018/19 – from 62 to 22, none of them in primary schools – as a result of our partnership work.

“And terms of violence towards pupils, this has also reduced by almost 25 per cent from 2017/18 to 2018/19. Our schools continue to work with partners to ensure that exclusions are further reduced during this and subsequent years, and the work of the partnerships has been enhanced further this year, both in Bury and Greater Manchester, through the Young People and violence plan, funded by the Home Office, which brings together agencies including, schools, police, local authority, youth justice, youth service and the voluntary sector.”