In July, the Children’s Commissioner launched a formal Inquiry into School Exclusions in England. The first phase of the Inquiry's work is a call for evidence, and I am writing now to encourage you to respond to it.

The Children's Commissioner is keen to receive your views of the current exclusions system and its operation. While we hope that people will focus their submissions around some or many of the questions in the attached document we are happy to receive contributions in any format, and for them to be as detailed or as brief as you want. The important thing from our own point of view is that we receive a wide range of opinions and perceptions.

If you would like your views to be treated in confidence, please make this clear. We will honour all requests for confidentiality.

Evidence should be sent electronically to schoolexclusions.inquiry@childrenscommissioner.gsi.gov.uk by noon on Wednesday 5 October 2011.

See www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk for documents.

This School Exclusions Inquiry will examine as many as possible of the details of the processes in place for excluding children from school, and the factors which influence schools' decisions to exclude a child, however hard that decision has been to reach for all concerned. It will examine how far the current exclusions system, and proposed changes to it, are consistent with children's rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The new Teachers' Standards give an unequivocal message that highly effective teaching is what matters in this profession.
The Review Group has seized the opportunity to raise the bar for current and future teachers. Our nation's children and young people deserve no less.
Roy Blatchford, Deputy Chair and Director of the National Education Trust

A seminar entitled 'Adventure, Risk and Challenge', held at the Chelsea Open Air Nursery School and Children's Centre in London, has highlighted the potential of a new programme designed to disseminate good practice and raise wider awareness of the effectiveness of children's centres.