Figures from the Department of Education have revealed that secondary school suspensions in England have more than doubled since before the pandemic.

According to the figures, a total of 300,330 suspensions were handed out across England in state-funded secondary schools during the 2023-2024 Autumn term.

This is up by more than 75,000 from 214,078 a year earlier.

It is also more than double the 143,006 suspensions during the Autumn term in 2019-2020, the last before the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is also three times higher than 2016-2017, which is the first year the data is available, when there were 101,209 suspensions.

Kingston upon Thames had the lowest rate with just one per 100 pupils, followed by Barking and Dagenham with a rate of 1.9 per 100, Harrow with a rate of 2.1, Merton with a rate of 2.2, Slough with a rate of 2.5, and Wokingham also with a rate of 2.5.

Redcar and Cleveland, in North Yorkshire, had the highest rate of suspensions of any local authority in England where, there were 35.2 suspensions for every 100 pupils in the area's state-funded secondary schools during the Autumn term.

According to Yorkshire News, "Suspensions are also on the rise when compared with the number of pupils in schools, so the increase is not just down to rising pupil numbers. There were 8.2 suspensions for every 100 pupils across England in the 2023/24 Autumn term.

"This is up from 4.2 per 100 pupils in the Autumn of 2019/20 and 3.1 in the Autumn of 2016/17.

"The North East of England has the highest rate of any region in the country. Suspensions were given at the rate of 14.4 per 100 pupils in the 2023/24 Autumn term, up from 7.3 per 100 before the pandemic."

London has the lowest rates of suspension of any region in England. There were 4.3 suspensions for every 100 state-funded secondary school pupils in Inner London in the 2023/24 Autumn term. In Outer London there were 3.5 for every 100 pupils.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders' union National Association of Head Teachers, said: "Schools want children to be in the classroom and only use suspensions as a last resort for the safety and wellbeing of all pupils and staff.

"School leaders and teachers recognise that poor or disruptive behaviour may often have its roots in challenges beyond the school gates, with parents having faced everything from a cost-of-living crisis to a pandemic in recent years.

"While schools do their best to help pupils, they alone are not equipped to address these underlying issues - but vital services like social care, children's mental health and special educational needs provision have been cut or failed to keep pace with demand over the last decade.

"More investment in community support is needed, including the behaviour support teams which used to offer specialist help to young people but now need rebuilding.

"We recognise that turning this situation around will take time, but it is positive that the new government has promised to address some of these issues, setting up a child poverty taskforce and making clear its intention to address the crisis in special educational needs provision."

A Department for Education spokesperson said "We will always support our hard-working teachers to provide safe and calm classrooms so that every child can achieve and thrive.

"But we know there is more to do and are looking closely at how we can go further to support teachers and drive up standards for all our children.

"We're also determined to tackle the causes of poor behaviour including by providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary, and ensuring earlier intervention for pupils with special needs."