SOME schools are illegally excluding pupils without going through the proper process, says the Children's Commissioner for England.

In a report, Children's Commisioner Dr Maggie Atkinson welcomed the falling number of exclusions in English schools but called for more research into "illegal practices" where schools send children home but the child's exit is not recorded as a formal exclusion.

The report showed that 5,740 children were permanently excluded from state-funded schools in 2009/10 and 179,800 young people excluded on a fixed-term basis at least once during that year.

The strongest predictor of being excluded from school, either permanently or on a fixed-term basis, was having special educational needs, followed by being black Caribbean, for permanent exclusion, or male, for fixed-term exclusions.

Dr Atkinson added that her inquiry had uncovered "compelling evidence" of a number of illegal exclusions made by schools.

These included unrecorded short-term exclusions to allow children to "cool off", and students being sent home and not allowed back until after a meeting has taken place with their parents.

Some pupils were moved to another school or simply sent home and recorded as "authorised absences".

Dr Atkinson said: "Excluding the child simply by saying 'You are not very happy here, are you? Why don't you not come back next Monday?' is unacceptable.

"It is irresponsible. Those working with children who are already vulnerable and may be living in very difficult and complicated and perhaps chaotic households would tell you that if you simply send a child home and you don't know what you are sending them to, you are in dereliction of your duty, and I would agree."

A Department for Education spokesman said: "Unless there is good behaviour in schools, teachers cannot teach and students cannot learn. Schools need to be able to exclude disruptive pupils as a last resort: to enforce non-negotiable school rules, to protect staff and students and to guarantee that excluded children get the support they need.

"Our policy on exclusions is the right one, and we will continue to support it. Obviously unofficial exclusions are unlawful. All schools must follow the legal exclusion process."