Yorkshire school isolation booths keep pupils out of class for months
One pupil spent 83 days in isolation and 14 suspended, more than half a school year. Three children are now challenging the use of booths and suspensions at a Leeds academy.
A Yorkshire school kept one pupil in an isolation booth for more than half an academic year. BBC’s File on 4 Investigates found that one pupil at Outwood Grange Academy in Wakefield spent more than 20% of their school days in isolation booths in one of the past two academic years. The figures sit alongside a legal challenge over repeated isolation and suspensions at John Smeaton Academy in Leeds, where three pupils aged 12 to 14 say the sanction has gone far beyond a short-term disciplinary measure.
The children’s lawyers said isolation meant six hours a day in a three-sided booth inside a dedicated room, in enforced silence. The children were not allowed to speak to peers at break or lunch, and received no active or meaningful teaching. One pupil, referred to as Lydia, spent 83 days in isolation and 14 days suspended in the 2023-24 academic year. Luke was isolated or suspended for 39% of the year, while Elise spent 28 days in isolation and struggled to complete the work set for her.
Schools Week found that 187 pupils, or 31% of those on roll at John Smeaton Academy, served an isolation sanction in 2023-24. The GORSE Academies Trust, which runs the school, uses a positive discipline policy and disputes some of the claims in the case, including the suggestion that one pupil had special educational needs linked to behaviour.
Department for Education guidance updated in February 2024 treats removing a pupil from class as a serious sanction, to be used only after other behaviour strategies have been tried. It also says schools should create calm, safe and supportive environments.
A 2025 University of Manchester study in the British Educational Research Journal found that one in 12 pupils in Greater Manchester mainstream secondary schools said they were placed in isolation at least once a week, with an average of 8.5 hours a week spent there. Pupils with education, health and care plans were more than twice as likely to be isolated as their peers, while those eligible for free school meals were around 1.5 times more likely to be internally excluded. Black, Asian, mixed-heritage and LGBTQ+ pupils were also more likely to be isolated.
Pupils reported reduced belonging, poorer relationships with teachers and lower wellbeing.
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