Plans to expand the vast National Pupil Database to include information on why kids leave mainstream education have been slammed by privacy campaigners.

The government's stated aim is to better understand how and why pupils end up with alternative provision (AP) by adding more detail to the information collected in the annual AP Census. It should also help sniff out cases where mainstream schools send kids out to boost their performance stats.

The new version (PDF) gives eight reasons for a pupil being in AP – for instance mental health needs, pregnancy, being an offender or permanent exclusion – and the info will be collected for the first time next month.