City reveals teacher attacks toll

Incidents recorded ranged from severe beatings to verbal abuse

Attacks on teachers in Sheffield were running at more than two a week during the last school year, according to figures obtained by the BBC.

From September 2006 to July 2007, 98 attacks were reported, the city council has revealed in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

These included teachers being hit in the face by children and attacks when staff tried to break up fights.

Some teachers had also been assaulted by parents, the figures show.

The attacks reported included serious verbal abuse but the council said it could not provide a more detailed breakdown of the data.

We enforce the law as much as we possibly can because our teachers deserve to teach in a safe environment Alan Marshall Children's Services, Sheffield

The authority was unable to say whether the figures were higher or lower than in previous years, but said recent council policy had been to encourage teachers to report any attacks.

Alan Marshall, a director in the council's children's services department, said: "We as a council take these incidents very seriously and we have very good personnel and human resources legal teams that follow up all these incidents.

"We enforce the law as much as we possibly can because our teachers deserve to teach in a safe environment.

"We do not think we are any worse or better than other cities.

"Considering we have 4,500 teachers and 70,000 pupils in our schools, these attacks are few and far between for the size of our city."

Government figures revealed in February showed that a teacher suffers a violent physical attack almost every school day in England.

There were 221 serious attacks on teachers last year alone, and 1,128 between 2000 and 2006. A spokeswoman for the National Union of Teachers said any attack was "completely unacceptable", but that they were relatively rare.

"It's particularly galling when the attacks are being carried out by parents because they are the ones who should be helping with discipline and good behaviour among children," she added.