The number of children being excluded from Norfolk's schools has risen - despite a drop in the national figures.
A total of 131 pupils were expelled from the county's schools during the 2020/21 academic year, which saw children return to the classroom after Covid lockdowns.
Experts suggest this readjustment may have proved difficult for some children, and could explain why the figure had risen from 113 the year before.
But while the Norfolk rise bucks a national trend of decline, the overall figure is considerably beneath heights hit in the past decade, when it peaked at 247 in 2015/16.
Jim Adams, chief executive of the Clarion Academy Trust and vice chairman of Education Norfolk Secondary, said: "‘In some of our schools, we have found that behaviour has been more challenging.
"Although most pupils have settled well, some children have it difficult to adjust to school boundaries following the various Covid restrictions. In some cases, this has led to increased numbers of exclusions.
"We have also found that where pupils who were on the verge of exclusion pre-lockdown, some quickly found themselves in difficulty upon return to full, face-to-face education."
He added that he felt Norfolk's difference to the national trend could be due to youngsters in rural areas having had fewer social interactions during lockdown.
Scott Lyons, district secretary of the National Education Union, however, said he did not expect this trend to continue.
He said that new 'special resource base' places being opened up could see the figures brought back down. These are specialist sites for children who struggle with mainstream school environments.
"There has been a lot of work gone into bringing this figure down and academy trusts have been working together to do managed moves and help give children fresh starts without excluding them," he added.
Meanwhile, there was also an increase in the number of pupils being suspended from school - with an increase of around 10pc year-on-year.
However, this was in line with the national trend.
Of the 131 exclusions, 100 were from secondary schools, with the remaining 31 of pupils in primary schools.
For the second consecutive year, there were no exclusions from the region's special schools.
Daniel Elmer, Norfolk County Council's deputy cabinet member for children's services, said: "We continue to work with our partners to explore how we can work with families and schools earlier, to help reduce suspensions and exclusions.”
Exclusions and suspensions are managed by individual schools, rather than the local authority itself.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here