secondary school

Towards the end of her first year in secondary school, Christina was contacted by a teacher who said the school believed Mia was autistic.

Marcus Goddard, who chairs the school’s governors, is about to start looking at secondary schools for his oldest child.

"Going into secondary school where nobody knows you, nobody knows your circumstances, it was difficult for me," she said.

The majority of suspensions and exclusions - around nine out of 10 - occur in secondary school, but numbers are rising among primary-age children too.

After completing primary and secondary school in Ghana, Bawumia moved to the UK for undergraduate study and went on to gain a masters in economics from the prestigious Oxford University.