Pupil pursues Supreme Court appeal over permanent exclusion after school ski trip

The appellant, SAG, had brought a challenge to a decision by the Governors’ Disciplinary Committee of the Winchmore School.

The GDC had upheld on reconsideration its earlier decision to refuse to reinstate SAG following a decision by the headteacher to exclude her permanently for misconduct.

That earlier decision had been quashed by an Independent Review Panel.

Neil Cameron KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, gave leave to bring a judicial review claim, but dismissed it.

In R (on the application of SAG) v the Governing Body of Winchmore School, the Court of Appeal refused – by a majority – SAG’s challenge to the dismissal of her claim for judicial review.

Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing and Lord Justice Arnold dismissed the appeal.

However, Lord Justice Edis considered that it was not reasonably open to the GDC to conclude that the misconduct was “extremely serious”.

See also: Court of Appeal rules on exclusions once again - The Court of Appeal delivered its third exclusion decision this year at the end of October. This marks unprecedented activity in exclusion case law - no other Court of Appeal exclusion cases have emerged since the law changed in 2011, writes Philip Wood.