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09 January 2026 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 8144 / Categories: Features , Education , Public , Judicial review
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Exclusion zone

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239517
Nicholas Dobson examines the case of a school ski trip, a confiscated mobile phone & a permanent exclusion
  • A pupil was permanently excluded from school after she entered a teacher’s hotel room during a school ski trip, retrieving a confiscated mobile phone.
  • The Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal, finding that the judge had correctly applied a heightened intensity of review, and that no material aspect of his reasoning was wrong.

In Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service [1985] AC 374, [1984] 3 All ER 935, Lord Diplock famously identified the three major types of power abuse as: illegality, irrationality and procedural impropriety. These underpin judicial review challenges.

One such appeal featuring irrationality considerations concerned school exclusion. This was R (on the application of SAG by her litigation friend ERG) v The Governing Body of Winchmore School [2025] EWCA Civ 1335. Judgment was given on 21 October 2025 by Lord Justice Arnold, Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing and Lord Justice Edis, the last dissenting.

The appellant, SAG, challenged the dismissal of her judicial review

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