IN ORDER to avoid strike action violent pupils must be excluded from schools. This was the ultimatum issued by the UK's National Union of Teachers (NUT). The statement was made in response to the recent case of Marjorie Evans, a headteacher who was suspended for 13 months before she was cleared of the charge of assaulting a pupil.

The NUT also called for an immediate end to the suspension of all teachers who are facing accusations of abuse from pupils. A recent British High Court decision allows school governors to take the threat of strike action into account when considering readmitting pupils who have been excluded for violent behaviour.

John Bangs, the NUT head of education, said: "The severity of bad behaviour has got worse. There's a small group of children whose behaviour is qualitatively worse than it has been in the past." The union said it is prepared to take industrial action where it felt teachers or other pupils were at risk and where a headteacher failed to take action or where an appeals panel had reversed a decision on an exclusion.