ABUSE of staff is the biggest factor behind pupil expulsions from Warrington schools.

Despite a downward trend in temporary and permanent exclusions since 2006, nearly 1300 incidents led to children being kicked out of school for a fixed period during the last academic year.

The government figures, taken from 36 primary and secondary schools in the area between 2008 and 2009, reveal that verbal abuse and threatening behaviour towards adults were the most common causes of students being thrown out.

There were 335 instances of youngsters harassing staff in such a manner, with a further 277 linked to disruptive behaviour.

Teachers also suffered 41 bouts of physical abuse from pupils. Guilty students were all suspended from school for a fixed amount of time, but there were also more serious events that led to permanent school bans.

Twelve children were booted out of school on a permanent basis last year, mainly for disruptive behaviour. Four were from Lysander Community High School, whilst one child verbally abused staff so badly at St Alban’s Catholic Primary they will never be allowed to return to the school.

The biggest offender in terms of temporary expulsions was Latchford’s Cardinal Newman Catholic High School with 153 reports,a reduction of five on the previous year. Cardinal was swiftly followed by Penketh High School with 139 occurences, although that was down from 203.

NASUWT chief and former Cardinal High teacher John Rimmer, however, said that cases of verbal abuse may be on the rise as they aren’t always recorded.

“Unfortunately verbal abuse is an increasing problem in our schools but it is massively under reported by staff who have so many other things to do.

“Teachers are subjected to abuse on a daily basis and shouldn’t have to put up with threats of violence.

“The strongest possible action needs to be taken.”

A spokesman for the council said: ““We are working in partnership with all schools and other agencies to improve behaviour and to reduce persistent absence. The impact of this work is evident in the steady reduction of the number of fixed term and permanent exclusions in our schools.”