Successful schools will be forced to take pupils expelled for violent and disruptive behaviour

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All heads who expel a pupil for a serious offence will be expected to take on a child who has been thrown out of a neighbouring school

Popular schools will be forced to take on pupils who have been expelled for violent and disruptive behaviour.

Under a Government plan, all heads who expel a pupil will be expected to admit a child who has been thrown out of a neighbouring school on a "one out, one in," basis.

Sought-after schools which would have given their vacant place to a child on the waiting list would instead have to admit an unruly youngster.

They would also have to accommodate disruptive children at other times in "managed moves".

The plan, which Children's Secretary Ed Balls wants to enshrine in law, would prevent classroom hooligans from becoming concentrated in struggling schools.

But critics warned last night that discipline problems would be imported into schools which have so far managed to keep order.

The move was being seen as a fresh strike at faith schools, days after some were accused of breaking admissions rules by taking "voluntary" payments in return for places.

This plan could force them to accept pupils of a different religion instead of believers on their waiting list.

Many schools already participate in voluntary partnerships, in which they agree common rules and pool resources for dealing with disruptive children.

But Mr Balls said some groups were not operating particularly well and some schools had not signed up.

Michael Grove, the Tory children's spokesman, said: "What head teachers need is the power to exclude troublemakers without having their decision over-ridden."

School's Secretary Ed Balls said he would change the law 'at the earliest opportunity'

Sir Alan Steer, head of Seven Kings High School in Ilford, was given the task of looking at government reforms aimed at raising discipline standards and recommended some schools — particularly popular faith schools — should now be forced by law to join local "behaviour partnerships".

He said a number of schools including those independent of local authority control were avoiding taking in excluded or so-called 'difficult' pupils and demanded a change to the process.

In a report published today, Sir Alan said: "A school that permanently excludes a child should expect to receive a permanently excluded child on the principle of one out, one in.

"It remains my firm view that all secondary schools — including new and existing academies, foundation schools and pupil referral units, should participate in behaviour partnerships."

Mr Balls told the NASUWT teachers' union conference in Birmingham that he accepted Sir Alan's recommendation and added: "Schools require support — from each other, from the specialist services in their local authority such as educational psychologists and youth workers, and above all from parents."

Sir Alan said schools had a "social responsibility" to work together to deal with the most badly behaved pupils, although mainstream institutions-would not always be the right place for them.

"I don't want a situation where schools were exporting without accepting their responsibility to import, where they could," he added.

Some parents with children on the waiting list for places at popular schools might protest that, if a vacancy were to become available, their offspring should get in ahead of a child whose behaviour was so bad he or she had been expelled.

But Sir Alan said that, as headteacher of a school that was three or four times over-subscribed, he would still take the expelled pupil over the child on the waiting list.

And even the most out of control children could change his or her ways if moved to a different environment, particularly if the "critical mass" of pupils were well-behaved, Sir Alan said.

"It is easier for me actually to take a child with difficulties than it sometimes is for another school because the critical mass is positive. We shouldn't say every child that gets excluded is an irredeemable villain," he said.

Hard evidence of headteachers of successful schools refusing to take in problem pupils is difficult to find but plenty of anecdotal accounts suggest the avoidance tactic is widespread as schools seek to preserve their league table positions and popularity.

The law change could create new discipline problems in schools that have been able to improve behaviour by ejecting the children responsible.

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