Education chiefs will meet with Barnet Council in the autumn to discuss ways of reducing the number of child exclusions.

Estelle Morris, the new schools standards minister, made it one of her first tasks last week to release league tables revealing expulsion rates across the country.

Figures for Barnet show 91 children were permanently excluded in 1996/97, 14 more than the previous year. The year before that, 1994/95, Barnet had one of the highest exclusion numbers in London with 108.

Increased parental responsibility has already been touted by the Government as a key feature in reducing expulsions, and Ms Morris emphasised the importance again last week. She said: "The Government is introducing new measures through the Crime and Disorder Bill to reinforce parental responsibility. New parenting orders will apply in the case of parents convicted of school attendance offences and the courts will be able to set specific conditions such as a requirement to escort a child to school."

According to the National Union of Teachers, if the Government wants to reduce expulsions the first thing that needs to be done is to reduce class sizes. Pat Taylor from Barnet Teachers' Association said having a single teacher in an oversized class especially when that class could include a disturbed child was not the ideal premise for reducing exclusions.

Kevin Edson, Barnet's Tory spokesman for education and chairman of governors at Ravenscroft school in Whetstone, said increased parental responsibility was not the only answer. "It is about the Local Education Authority, parents and schools working together," he said. "Sometimes pupils can be guilty of misconduct at school but are paragons of virtue at home, and vice versa. Sometimes parents don't have the full picture."

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