TEACHERS from Blackburn are in America to see how a city's schools have banished violence from the classrooms.

Staff from four schools -- three primaries and one secondary -- have flown out to Chicago, Illinois, to meet their counterparts who have helped to transform schools in violent areas.

City leaders recently declared that a battle to clean up their schools had worked, with get-tough measures helping make them safer places to learn.

They included placing metal detectors at doors to catch pupils carrying weapons and employing full-time security patrols.

Pupils have also been forced to wear school uniforms, while anger management courses have also been held.

Some schools are now run by the army to instil discipline.

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said: "There is absolutely no suggestion that our schools are anything like the ones in Chicago but we did think it would be useful to send a small party out to see how they have dealt with problem pupils.

"The schools there say things have improved a lot and if we can learn anything about dealing with pupils with problems, then it will be a worthwhile exercise.

"The initiative does not cost us anything. It is paid for by the Department for Education and Skills and is part of a larger, international scheme designed to help schools across the world share knowledge."

The Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council party has been tasked to look at American systems of behaviour management.

Teachers from Longshaw County Junior School, Park Lee Road, St. Andrew's CE in Scotland Bank Terrace, St. Luke's and St. Philip's in Hancock Street and Witton Park High School in Buncer Lane have gone to the States.

A school behavioural officer from the council will also go.

They will produce a report into the trip and any new systems introduced will be monitored nationally to see if they work.

The trip comes a little over a year since teachers from Australia travelled to Blackburn to learn about improvements the council has made to its schools since becoming a unitary authority.

They spent a fortnight learning about some of the borough's best practices which helped it gain beacon status -- a Government-awarded accolade for education authorities which are doing very well.

The spokesman added: "The teachers were from Adelaide and we believe some of the techniques they picked up from us are being used over there now."

Teachers from East Lancashire have also visited Australia, where they learnt about teaching skills.