IS the large increase in the number of children being excluded from The Chase school a sign of its determination to maintain high standards, as its headteacher Kevin Peck told us this week, or is it a sign the school is losing control of pupils?

Maybe it's a sign of the times and these days schools have little choice but to exclude because other sanctions are not available for serious bad behaviour.

It's a fact that under former headteacher David Fawbert in 2000/01 the number of pupils subject to some length of exclusion from school was 25.

In 2004/05, under Mr Peck, that number had risen to 85 children.

The school forged a fantastic reputation under Mr Fawbert's leadership and did so without the need to exclude large numbers of pupils.

Mr Peck says pupils these days are exhibiting more challenging behaviour.

It is probably quite hard for parents to understand exclusions as when they were at school it was used as a sanction only for the most serious cases, but in those days other punishments existed and were probably backed up by parents at home.

As the parent of a well-behaved child, you may well be pleased if the disruptive element is kept out of school, although as a society we should be mindful of the potential social cost if we leave some young people disaffected.

We would be interested to hear from parents, teachers and children about their experiences and how they think schools should meet the challenge of maintaining discipline in a changing society.