Union: Legal action by disruptive pupils plaguing teachers

Teachers in the North are being put under growing pressure by violent and disruptive pupils who threaten legal action, it was claimed today.

One in 10 teachers experience some form of verbal or physical abuse every day in schools across the UK.

But NASUWT claimed an increasing number of court actions are being brought against schools that exclude problem children and teenagers.

The union also announced plans to assess the effectiveness of pupil referral units, which it claims are essential to help troubled children.

Seamus Searson, the union’s Northern Ireland Organiser, said: “It is as though solicitors are circling schools threatening legal action.

“It gives anxiety to teachers and adds to their workload.

“Pupil referral units cater for the nation’s most disruptive pupils, but to be effective the units need to have the right level of funding and the right amount of provision.

“Our anecdotal evidence suggests that its not universally the case.”

Mr Searson said the union wanted to pinpoint where the problems were taking place and present its findings to the British government and Local Government Associations.

A motion was today passed at the NASUWT conference in Birmingham committing the union to carry out checks on the effectiveness of pupil referral units across the UK.

The North has more than 20 such units, which attempt to help improve the behaviour of problem pupils.