MOLLY is the first to say she has a 'very bad' anger issue.

"Sometimes I go from 0 to 100 extremely quickly," she admits.

Arguing with a teacher, shouting out in the classroom and fighting with pupils are just some of the reasons the 15-year-old was permanently excluded from her Poole school.

As reported this week, the number of children expelled from Poole schools has quadrupled since 2013 from ten to 43 last year and Molly has courageously told her story.

But Molly says being excluded is the best thing that has ever happened to her because she now goes to a specialist school for excluded pupils in the borough and the support she has received has meant she has turned her life around for the better.

"I was on code red because of a string bad behaviour. One day, I was really late to a lesson and started arguing with the teacher about why I was late, and they said 'that's it."

"I was shocked. I never thought they would actually do it and I felt really disappointed in myself."

Molly feels that her behavioural condition ADHD and the fact she was bullied led to her behaving badly.

"I probably played up a bit more because I felt I wasn't being listened to.

"The bullying from year seven to year nine put me on the defensive, and I ended up fighting.

"I was getting phone calls from someone who I thought was my best friend telling me to kill myself.

"One time I was thrown off my school bus, pushed around a bit and one school I was attacked by six boys.

"When I first started I was in the top sets but then I had eight months out of school because I physically could not cope with the bullying anymore. When I went back, I ended up in the bottom sets and my behaviour got worse and worse."

Within six days of being expelled, Molly was transferred to The Quay School, which has four sites across Poole and provides places for excluded children, those at risk of exclusion or children who have been medically referred, often for mental health reasons.

"I'm happy here because I feel supported. Every day I get home and I'll talk about school with my mum for about half an hour rather than shutting myself away in my bedroom."

Molly attends classes in angling, public services, maths and English and her new-found love of learning has meant she now even dreams to go onto further education and become a forensic scientist.

"Of course people have slip ups.

"When I was at my lowest, I thought I'd never behave. Before, I hated school and I'd avoid going in and now I love it because I feel very accepted and I don't have to put up a front anymore. I've seen so much change in my confidence.

"Now I am 98 per cent I'll get what I want out of life now if I keep trying hard enough."

Molly is just one of the 77 pupils who were expelled from schools across the county last year including five primary school children - the youngest aged just eight.

A request to Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset councils revealed these pupils were expelled for everything from taking drugs and drinking alcohol to stealing and attacking teachers and fellow pupils.

One exclusion that hit headlines earlier last year was a 15-year-old schoolboy who was arrested after allegedly setting up a cocaine dealing operation in the playground of his secondary school.

The Quay School has devised an early intervention project as a result of the rising numbers of exclusions which were branded "an unsustainable level". This includes working in secondary schools as well as offering short stay places at the facility.

Jo Perry, CEO of The Quay School, which was awarded an 'outstanding' Ofsted inspection, explained: "The number of exclusions are going up nationally.

"Society, and the pressures on children in society, are so immense and with increasing deprivation and pressure on families, it is going to come out.

"Behaviours are all a response to trauma. Whether they retreat into their bedroom and can't cope and don't speak or they start displaying very challenging behaviour, it's all a response that something is going very wrong in their lives.

"Children have to cope with traumas too and that is very difficult when you are young.

"Exclusion is the end of the line. It's when the actions of a child are stopping other children learning because they are being persistently disruptive or they put themselves or others at risk.

"The decision is not taken lightly. Head teachers are there because they care what happens to young people so they get very upset when they are in that position but sometimes they simply have no other option."

However for the teachers at the specialist school, no child is too challenging even if that means taking children to the forest for classes outdoors.

Head teacher John White, said: "Whatever it takes we'll find a way. We're all here for the same reason.

"We want to work with the most vulnerable kids rather than all kids, so we can focus in and make a massive difference to a few rather than a small difference to many and that's very satisfying.

"It is very hard some days and it's not an easy school to work in. If you can imagine something that has happened to a child and can imagine all sorts of bad behaviour, we have seen it but it is always worth it to see what a difference can be made."

The school's aim is to get as many pupils as possible back into mainstream education by working on strategies to deal with bad behaviour.

Russell Arnold, the deputy head, added: "We try to sit down with the students and reflect on what has happened and teach them coping strategies to avoid it in the future.

"They're not proud of being excluded. It's something that has happened in their life that was a barrier and for many of them, has knocked their self esteem but it's a fresh start when they come here.

"These children are often dealt a difficult card and it's our responsibility to give them the best future possible."