THE NUMBER of schoolchildren being expelled in Enfield is nearly double the London average, new figures show.

Sixty secondary school pupils were expelled between 2007 and 2008, well above the London average of 37 per borough.

In 2006/7, 63 children were permanently excluded. The number rose to 80 in 2005/6 from 61 in 2004/5.

The causes were mostly “persistent disruptive beh-aviour”. Physical abuse of another pupil was the reason in seven cases, and there were nine cases of physical abuse of an adult according to the 2006/7 data, which is the most recent available.

The see-saw picture in Enfield does not mirror the national picture, where across England the number of expelled pupils has shown a steady decline since 2004.

In 2004/5 9,570 were expelled while in 2007/8 it was 8,130.

According to the last available Ofsted inspection report, carried out in 2003, Enfield has a higher than average exclusion rate for both expulsions and suspensions.

To help remedy this, charity Save the Children set up a one-year project in 2006 called EAR to Listen, which gave advice to 36 young people in Enfield who had left education or who were at risk from dropping out of the education system.