The National Union of Teachers (NUT) voted at its annual conference yesterday to draw up the code of standards and punishments, then seek talks with other teachers’ unions about it.

Steve Sinnott, the NUT’s general secretary, said that sanctions would range from detention to expulsion, adding that teachers should be allowed to use their judgment to deal with unruly youngsters without interference from politicians or governing bodies.

Mr Sinnott said that there was also increasing concern among teachers about aggressive parents. “People who work in offices and factories should not experience violence at work and neither should teachers, whether it is from pupils or parents,” he said.

“We can’t tolerate teachers being attacked, that is not on and it has to be made absolutely clear to youngsters.”

A succession of speakers at the conference in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, complained that teachers were enduring unacceptable levels of assault and abuse. A motion calling for the charter of pupil behaviour was passed overwhelmingly.

Jenny Cooper, a teacher at Hay Lane special school in Brent, northwest London, said that a 14-year-old girl had attempted to stab a colleague in the neck with a kitchen knife, saying that she wanted to kill her.

The teenager was suspended, then given anti-psychotic medication and social services care. When she returned to the school she had to sit separately at lunch times so that “a knife and fork could be used away from other pupils and staff”.

Anne Perez, also from Brent, said: “I was hit in one lesson by a pupil who is now in a secure unit. Fortunately, another pupil got up and cornered him to defend me.”

Pat Astle, from Essex, told delegates that “constant backchat, disrespect and questioning of authority” from pupils undermined teachers’ confidence.

“We know that most children in school behave but it takes only one child to disrupt the whole class and spoil the education of the rest,” she said.

“Teaching should not be something teachers do when they are not dealing with unacceptable behaviour.”

Robin Head, from Somerset, who proposed the motion, said: “We all know the stress it causes us, our colleagues (and) our colleagues’ families when order in the classroom breaks down. Poor pupil behaviour is consistently cited as a reason why staff leave the profession.”

The union also argued that an uninspiring curriculum was partly responsible for disruption, since pupils felt disaffected.

• The NUT voted yesterday to campaign for the abolition of immigration controls, arguing that rules requiring migrants to be able to speak English and have skills were “intrinsically racist”. The union condemned Labour and Conservative policies for dealing with asylum seekers and refugees.

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