EXPULSIONS from schools are running at their highest for five years, government figures showed yesterday.

Violence and threats against pupils and teachers accounted for almost half of the 9,880 expulsions last year, the Department for Education and Skills reported.

Assaults also resulted in 85,000 suspensions from school in 2003-04. In all, 200,000 pupils were issued with 344,510 suspensions, with a hard core of 1,500 youngsters receiving at least eight each.

Ministers asked schools for the first time this year to say why they had excluded children. Persistent disruptive behaviour was given as the biggest single reason, leading to 3,040 expulsions and almost 91,000 suspensions.

Attacks on pupils led to 1,720 expulsions and 69,020 suspensions. Assaults on adults also caused heads to exclude pupils in 17,000 cases.

Verbal abuse and threatening behaviour by pupils resulted in 1,500 expulsions and 89,000 suspensions. Bullying led to 150 children being expelled and 6,750 suspended.

Drug and alcohol-related incidents led to 610 expulsions, 6 per cent of the total, and 12,250 suspensions. Schools expelled 140 children for sexual misconduct and issued 3,080 suspensions.

The 6 per cent increase in overall expulsions comes at a time of heightened concern among parents and teachers about unruly behaviour. A government task force set up by Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, to recommend ways of strengthening discipline met for the first time this week.

Jacqui Smith, the School Standards Minister, said that there was no doubt that behaviour was causing concern in some schools. The Government was committed to a “zero-tolerance approach . . . on everything from backchat to bullying or violence”.

The figures showed that the problem was overwhelmingly concentrated in secondary schools. Expulsions from primary schools fell by 30 last year to 1,270, although they included 20 boys who were aged four or less. Expulsions from secondary schools rose by more than 600 to 8,320. Secondary school heads also issued 288,040 suspensions, 84 per cent of the total.

The number of expulsions of pupils aged 11 and 12 more than doubled from 680 to 1,540. Two thirds of all expelled pupils were aged 12 to 14. Eighty per cent of them were boys.

Children with special educational needs were four times more likely to be excluded from mainstream schools than other pupils. Two thirds of those expelled in 2003-04 had been identified as having special needs.

David Cameron, the Shadow Education Secretary, has highlighted the level of expulsions in urging the Government to reconsider its policy of including pupils with special needs in mainstream schools.

Expulsions are now at their highest since 1998-99, although still well below the peak of 12,677 in 1996-97, the final year of the last Conservative Government.

Parents sought to overturn the school’s decision in 1,130 cases. But appeals panels directed heads to take a child back in only 130 cases, 20 fewer than in the previous year.

Ms Smith: “There is a false notion that many heads are unwilling to exclude, or that any exclusion they make will be overturned on appeal. Today’s figures show that to be nonsense.”

David Hart, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said that schools were responding to a rising tide of violence and disruption.

He said: “Inevitably, head teachers are beginning to have to respond to that by excluding more pupils until such time as they understand they have to comply with the school rules.”

Separate government figures also showed an increase in school attendance last term, with an extra 3,000 children in class every day compared with last year.

Parents have been issued with more than 1,100 penalty notices since the autumn for allowing their children to play truant. More than 11,500 have been placed on a “fast track” scheme to prosecution, which could see them fined or jailed unless their children attend school.

More than 2,200 parents have also signed parenting contracts promising to improve their child’s attendance.

Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “Schools will not tolerate the deteriorating behaviour of a small number of young people.

“Head teachers need to be confident that when they exclude a pupil they will not be subject to unwarranted criticism and have the Government’s backing.”

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