This Education Policy Institute analysis finds that many pupils spend substantial amounts of time moving in and out of the mainstream classroom. In the 2024/25 academic year alone, 94,400 pupils missed the equivalent of more than one week of school due to suspensions and a further 9,906 pupils were permanently excluded. Alongside these formal exclusionary practices, schools are frequently removing pupils from the classroom, school premises or school roll through less official means, or what we refer to as ‘under-the-radar’ exclusions.