Katharine Birbalsingh (Image: Getty)

       High-profile head Katharine Birbalsingh warned that disadvantaged children would pay the price under Labour’s reported plans.

       It is understood that the new Government is set to overhaul measures introduced by the Tories to deal with disruptive pupils in favour of a more “inclusive” approach to poor behaviour.

       Ministers are said to be planning to stop schools from repeatedly suspending children with special educational needs who fail to meet strict behaviour rules.

       Behaviour hubs – a flagship Department for Education (DfE) scheme introduced by the Conservatives to support schools with poor discipline – could also be stripped of funding.

       Isolation booths, designated areas where children are sent to calm down, may be scaled back – and ministers are said to be planning to stop schools telling children with special educational needs they would be better off at another school.

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       But head teachers are concerned the result will be “more chaotic and dysfunctional schools”, with less-advantaged children bearing the brunt.

       Ms Birbalsingh, the head of Michaela Community School and a former chair of the Social Mobility Commission, said: “Disadvantaged kids are set to suffer if Labour do what they are saying they will do.”

       Writing on X, formerly Twitter, she warned that “all the gains that have helped poorer kids over the last decade will be eradicated” if current measures are stripped back.

       “I was never a Conservative. But I knew that what the Conservative Party was doing for kids was right. We are all about to find out what Labour policies are going to do instead,” she wrote.

       “If Labour do what they say they will do to schools, disadvantaged kids will pay the price. The politicians will feel good about themselves and all the gains that have helped poorer kids over the last decade will be eradicated.”

       Behaviour in schools has deteriorated since the pandemic. Ministers are thought to have been rattled by official statistics published earlier this week showing a record number of school suspensions last year.

       Pupils in England were temporarily removed from school 787,000 times in the 2022/23 academic year, a 36 per cent jump in a single year and the highest suspension rate since records began.

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       In total, 304,000 pupils were suspended at some point over the year, meaning a large group received multiple suspensions.

       Anne Longfield, the former children’s commissioner whose Centre for Young Lives has been working alongside Labour, said it was “clear that a large group of kids have been made to feel school isn’t for them – and that has to change”.

       She told The Observer, which first reported Labour’s plans to overhaul behaviour measures: “I’ve talked to kids who weren’t able to cope with all the rules, who kept ending up in isolation, and some children said it was happening week after week.”

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       DfE figures published last week also showed a record number of permanent exclusions last year, with 9,400 children expelled from schools in England, up from 6,500 in the 2021/22 academic year.

       The DfE has said that persistent disruptive behaviour was the main driver of sanctions on pupils last year, accounting for almost half of all suspensions and 39 per cent of expulsions.

       The figures also showed rises in the number of pupils suspended or expelled for bullying, physical assault, racist abuse and drug or alcohol use.

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