Pupil brings legal action against school's isolation policy

Legal proceedings have been lodged in the high court against an academy trust for its use of so-called isolation units to discipline pupils.Lawyers have applied for a judicial review of Outwood Grange Academies Trust’s (OGAT) use of “consequence rooms” containing booths in which children sit in silence for hours as punishment for breaking school rules. OGAT runs 30 schools across Yorkshire, the Humber and the east Midlands.The application has been made on behalf of a boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who was kept in one such unit at his school in Yorkshire for a third of the last academic year – 60 full school days.Parents criticised OGAT’s behaviour policy, which in September this year stated that children could be sent to the consequence rooms for up to six hours a day with no teaching. When in the rooms, children were not allowed to “tap, chew, swing on their chairs, shout out, sigh, or any other unacceptable or disruptive behaviour”.“Students cannot sleep or put their heads on the desk. They must sit up and face forward,” the behaviour policy said. “Communication of any kind with any other student is not allowed … You will be escorted to get your lunch, but you must stay silent.”