THE sort of behaviour which left pupils injured and police guarding Moorhead High School in Accrington this week was driving teachers out of the job in droves, an East Lancashire teachers' leader warned today.

Simon Jones, divisional secretary for the National Union of Teachers and a member of the union's executive, added: "Not only is the welfare of pupils and teachers threatened, but behaviour like this disrupts the education of other children."

He said violence at schools meant a large number of teachers were leaving the profession within four years of starting their careers. And he pointed out that teachers also increasingly faced violence and threats from parents. In a recent survey, 12 per cent of teachers had revealed they had been threatened by one of their pupils' parents in the last year.

"We cannot continue to allow such behaviour in schools," he added.

Yesterday, Education Secretary Estelle Morris revealed that schools will be told to get tough on pupils who carry weapons or repeatedly bully classmates, in a government move to respond to growing concern over violence in schools

She will launch guidelines next week for schools on violent behaviour by pupils.

For the first time, carrying a weapon will be added to the list of misdemeanours for which children can be expelled on a first offence.

Meanwhile, a headteachers' leader said that the Government had undermined schools' ability to control unruly pupils with its demand that the number of expulsions should be reduced. He added: "If you carry a knife in the streets, you will be arrested and imprisoned -- at school, you might be excluded and then returned by an appeal panel with no consequences."

Mr Jones pointed out that NUT teachers were refusing to teach some pupils who had been excluded for unruly behaviour and then reinstated by a panel.

A spokesman for the children charity NCH said: "We are worried about the violence we now see being committed by young people against other young people, both in school and on the streets.

"Violence requires a consistent, whole school approach that engages all the pupils if it is to be tackled."