The boys expelled for making death threats against a teacher, then reinstated on appeal, are being given individual tuition out of school.

Education officials in Surrey have now had talks with both sets of parents of the boys but the council is making no further comment on those at present.

Our priority is now to secure education for the boys and the normal workings at Glyn School

Kay Hammond, Surrey education authority

A meeting on Monday of Surrey's executive committee agreed that the executive member for children and young people, Kay Hammond, should write to the education secretary "exploring with her department how we can avoid these problems in future".

The letter will ask "whether we can learn any lessons arising from current processes and policies on behaviour, exclusions and independent appeal panels".

On Friday Cllr Hammond said the intervention in the case by the Education Secretary, Estelle Morris, had made Surrey's job "almost impossible".

Reinstated

Ms Morris had said the boys should no longer be in their school - Glyn Technology School in Epsom - and asked the authority to arrange alternative education.

But she had no legal power to do this.

The boys - both in their GCSE exam year - had been expelled for making a series of abusive phone calls, including death threats, to a teacher who had disciplined them for throwing stones at a window.

The independent local exclusion appeal panel had decided there were errors in the expulsion procedure, that the threats had not been serious, and that it was important that the boys' education continue.

It ordered their reinstatement, which was what their parents wanted.

Independent

Teachers had been refusing to teach the boys but set work for them which was supervised by a supply teacher.

Their victim - PE teacher Steve Taverner - is off work with the stress of the experience.

Surrey said its role was to organise the appeal panel, but it had "no influence whatsoever" on its decision.

"I regret that this independence from the council has been widely misunderstood," Cllr Hammond said.

Cllr Hammond said the council felt the boys' actions had been "very serious" and permanent exclusion had been a "reasonable" response.

Alternative tuition

A political storm broke following news reports of the case on Thursday.

"In this atmosphere the two boys were at home on Thursday and Friday of last week but the council is now arranging individual tuition," Cllr Hammond told the executive meeting.

Neither boy was in school on Monday.

"Officers have been in discussion with the parents about their wishes for their continued education," she said.

"Our priority is now to secure education for the boys and the normal workings at Glyn School.

"We all - the school, the parents and Surrey County Council - need to resolve the issue in as calm an atmosphere as possible."