Guides
Plain answers for leaders and governors.
What the 2026 guidance expects on restraint records, inclusion bases, part time timetables and suspensions, what to check this week, and the questions schools ask. Written by a former special school headteacher, updated as the guidance changes, free to use and share.
Restraint records: what the 2026 guidance requires, and what governors should check
What must be recorded and when parents are told, what governors should review, and ten questions a chair can ask this week.
Inclusion bases: what the DfE guidance expects, and how to tell if yours is working
What the June 2026 guidance expects of a base, how one drifts into a sanction room, and what to check each term.
Part time timetables: the rules, the risks, and how to get pupils back to full time
When a reduced timetable is allowed, why it must never manage behaviour, and what a real plan back to full time looks like.
Suspensions and the graduated response: what the 2026 exclusions guidance expects schools to show
What schools are expected to show before excluding, why the same pupils keep being suspended, and what governors should monitor.
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