‘I found my SEND son sobbing’: Inside the damaging school isolation rooms ...Middle East

“He was just sat in front of a computer. Not allowed to talk or eat. Told when to go to the toilet,” one mother told The i Paper. “I sometimes found my son sobbing. It was really damaging.” Her son, who has ADHD, had become trapped in what she called “the dark underbelly of education” – a cycle of seclusion that left him worse, not better.

Another 12-year-old was so distressed he stabbed his mother with a cheese knife. An 11-year-old girl scrawled words about suicide across her hand. A seven-year-old with autism was found naked by his mother, rocking back and forth, asking when he would see his friends again.

These are just some of the behaviours exhibited by children who have been put in so-called school seclusion rooms. Given names such as Rainbow and Sunshine, they are intended to keep pupils safe and minimise disruption. A survey of 6,121 teachers by Teacher Tapp, an app that polls educators in England daily, found that these rooms are now used in 90 per cent of secondary schools and 21 per cent of primaries.

But documents seen by The i Paper, which include 100 accounts of children placed in those rooms, suggest that some of them are used to isolate and punish students, including those with special educational needs. Parents describe finding their child crying alone in a windowless room, or left for hours in spaces they describe as “smelly”, “cold” and the size of a “small shed”.

There are stories of children as young as four being left to wet themselves. Others are said to have developed phobias and, in the most severe cases, threatened suicide.

“This has pushed us to crisis point,” a devastated mother said, explaining that being secluded had a “catastrophic effect” on her son’s mental health. “We were drowning and we had nowhere to turn.” An official investigation found that his school also failed to stop him from climbing dangerously high on the outside of a stairwell, putting him at risk of a “fall from height”.

Overuse of seclusion rooms is ‘madness’

Analysis of data from 1,195 schools in England by the University of Manchester found that in 2024/25, one in every 60 secondary pupils spent at least a tenth of their school year in removal rooms. Almost one in 1,000 of those surveyed were spending nearly half their school days fully or partly internally excluded – a situation one academic describes as “madness”.

In 2023, the UN recommended that seclusion be banned as a disciplinary measure in schools. In April, the UK Government introduced new laws, requiring schools to record seclusions but only when it is used to keep children and staff safe.

The 100 detailed accounts were collected by the International Coalition Against Restraint and Seclusion (ICARS) – a volunteer-led organisation dedicated to eliminating institutional abuse. Their intention is to submit these documents to the United Nations in autumn as evidence that the Government has failed to comply with the 2023 UN recommendation.

Nearly eight in 10 accounts (79 per cent) come from parents of disabled children, primarily those with autism or ADHD. Six in 10 said their child had been isolated all day; 64 per cent reported new or worsening sleep disturbances or nightmares afterwards, and almost half said their child had begun self-harming or did so more frequently.

“These accounts are a damning indictment of Westminster’s failure to act on seclusion as a disciplinary practice in England’s schools,” says Becky Gillespie who heads ICARS’ UK division. “The harm to children and families is horrifying.”

The i Paper has independently verified the claims of 10 parents selected from the wider group by analysing more than 50 reports, letters and other related documents from social workers, therapists, hospitals and schools.

‘Clear concern’ from teachers’ union

Britain’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Union, said the Government should be finding out why so many pupils are removed from mainstream classrooms when they become dysregulated. The NEU’s general secretary Daniel Kebede said there was “clear concern” from members about the “inappropriate use” of isolation rooms. Seclusion would only be reduced by investment in staff and access to specialist support, he added.

Government guidance now distinguishes two categories. The first – officially known as seclusion – covers non-disciplinary removal for immediate safety, and schools are legally required to record its use. The second, “internal exclusion”, is used for disciplinary reasons. There is no legal requirement for the school to record their use of this practice and the guidance is not legally binding.

The Department for Education’s lead behaviour adviser, Tom Bennett, described seclusion rooms as supervised spaces that are “normally used for very short periods to allow an antisocial situation to be defused. Where it is overused it should absolutely be challenged”. He also cautioned against making “causal claims” about the effect on children of removal from classrooms, warning: “It is very easy for small numbers or individual cases to be amplified into a narrative that doesn’t reflect typical practice.”

A handful of parents made positive comments about the use of these spaces, saying their child had come to prefer seclusion to being “overstimulated” in a classroom, or used them to “decompress” before returning to class.

Naomi*, whose son stabbed her with the cheese knife, shared social worker and therapist reports, which she said link his violent outburst to his seclusion during his time at a high school in northern England. She claims he was secluded multiple times a week for a period of almost five years.

“You think you are taking your child to a safe place but he was put somewhere… which triggered him more and made him come home and explode,” she said.

The high school said it balances the needs of its students to ensure the school works “as effectively as possible,” adding that it supported children with special educational needs in small classrooms with trained staff.

In a separate case, an academy in north-west London admitted in December 2024 to having kept a student with autism and ADHD in a reset room for the “majority” of his time at the school.

‘it has become a crutch’

In a letter seen by The i Paper, the school agreed to provide “reasonable adjustments” so he “does not suffer discrimination”, including a review of its use of “sanctions”.

The organisation that runs the academy says students received bespoke and personalised support in its reset room, which “functions like any other classroom”.

“There is a significant minority of children for whom it is clearly not working,” said Professor Neil Humphrey of the University of Manchester, who conducted the research. “They are regularly in and out of exclusion spaces. It is the definition of madness: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” he said.

“Schools are ultimately trying to do their best in a difficult job. But this has become a tool which might feel effective in the short term, but has become a crutch. It’s a bit of a Wild West.”

*Name has been changed

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