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

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