NEARLY 17,000 children were suspended or expelled from school last summer for attacking teachers or fellow pupils.

Overall, 62,000 pupils were permanently or temporarily excluded from school during the summer term of 2003, figures released yesterday revealed. The Department for Education and Skills admitted that the numbers could be even higher as some local authorities had returned incomplete forms.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Alan Smithers, Director of the Centre for Employment Research, said.

“It bears out what teachers have been telling us for years. Pupil behaviour is the second most important reason after workload that they give for leaving the profession.” The figures reveal for the first time, the scale of disruption at schools in England. They come just days after the mother of the murdered schoolboy Luke Walmsley called for schools to be given greater powers to expel the type of “evil bully” who killed her son.

Pupil behaviour, in particular violence, is the second most common reason teachers give for leaving the profession after workload. The most common reason for the 80,000 suspensions of 62,000 pupils was “persistent disruptive behaviour”, which accounted for more than a fifth. Of those expelled, more than 280 were thrown out of school for attacking adults and 336 for assaults on other pupils, over a period of two months.

Boys aged 13 to 14 were the most likely to have broken school rules. Overall, boys accounted for 80 per cent of the expulsions and 77 per cent of suspensions.

Local authorities said that children were more likely to be expelled if they had been violent or been involved with drugs and alcohol. Most of the suspended pupils were sent home only once, for an average of three and a half days.

Chris Keates, the acting general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers, said that the level of assaults was of “deep concern” but no surprise.

Professor Smithers said pupils should be taught how to behave in class.

“Rampant individualism is not good for us all. We need to develop a sense of society and start by teaching 3-5-year-olds how to share toys, speak politely to teachers and learn to wait their turn.”

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