Normally yes.
DfE’s exclusions guidance says written witness statements should be attributed, signed and dated — so a statement you write about an incident goes to the review with your name on it. There is an exception, and it is the school’s to use: where the school has good reason to protect a witness’s anonymity, the statement is dated and labelled instead of named.
updated 26 Jul 2026last checked 8 Aug 2026
What the source actually says
“All written witness statements should be attributed, signed, and dated unless the school has good reason to wish to protect the anonymity of the witness, in which case the statement should at least be dated and labelled in a way that allows it to be distinguished from other statements.”
— Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement, DfE, July 2026 edition (in force from 26 July 2026), para 200 DfE
Teachers are among the people the guidance expects statements to come from:
“Witness statements can be gathered from the headteacher, the pupil’s teachers, the designated safeguarding lead, the pupil themselves, the pupil’s parent(s) and if applicable, the designated teacher for looked-after children.”
— Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement, DfE, July 2026 edition, footnote 67 DfE
Anonymity is a limited device, not a general shield, because of what the pupil is owed:
“The general principle remains that permanently excluded pupils are entitled to know the substance behind the reason for their permanent exclusion and the school should communicate this effectively with the pupil.”
— Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement, DfE, July 2026 edition, para 201 DfE
Where the account is contested, the guidance pushes towards signed statements rather than away from them:
“Where there are difficulties in retaining physical evidence, photographs or signed witness statements should be used.”
— Suspension and permanent exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England, including pupil movement, DfE, July 2026 edition, para 204 DfE
Two things follow. The decision to withhold a name rests with the school, not with the person who wrote the statement — so it is a request to make, not a condition you can attach. And “should” here is the guidance’s own weaker term: good practice a school may depart from where it has good reason, which is exactly the hook the anonymity carve-out hangs on.
Your school may still require it
Your school can set its own house rules on top of this — a standard incident-report form, a deadline, a countersignature from a line manager. Those are lawful local additions. What the school cannot do is promise blanket anonymity as a matter of routine: the guidance treats naming as the default and anonymity as the exception that needs a reason, and the excluded pupil is still entitled to know the substance of why they were excluded.
See also If a pupil hurt me, do I get a say at the exclusion review? and Do I have to write up every behaviour incident in detail?.