A student spends more than half the school year in solitary confinement, the BBC learns.

Ben said that he was often given no work at all, simple tasks like word searches, or very difficult tasks – but inappropriate material that could occupy him all day.

This is despite Outwood Grange Academies Trust – which runs the school and 40 others in the north of England – changing its policy in 2019 to say pupils should be offered meaningful work. Faith, a student who spent 35 days in solitary confinement that year, was threatened with a judicial review.

The students were warned if they hovered, leaned against the wall or looked around, Benn said. He said if they failed to behave they could be sent home – and forced to repeat the isolation the next day.

“It’s very rare,” says Ben, to go through a spell on its own without warning. “If you put a teenager in an isolation room all day with nothing to do, they’re going to end up angry.”

Parents and students at the school say children have been kicked out for wearing untucked shirts, talking in class, asking them to go to the bathroom, not holding their diapers or asking them to open a window.

Outwood Grange Academy said the amount of time students spent meditating had halved last year. “Reflection classes are successful in improving behavior,” he said.

The school sometimes assigns students word searches or other simple tasks to “exacerbate” their behavior at first, but then gives them academic work once they have calmed down. He said that when repeated, even seemingly minor incidents can disrupt classrooms, which was unfair to other students.