TEACHERS at an East Lancashire school are being balloted on industrial action over the teaching of a teenager expelled for hitting a member of staff.

The 13-year-old was excluded from Fearns High School after an investigation by head Neil Thornley, in May, following a school yard incident when a teacher was hit.

But after months of appeals by the boy's mother, he will now return on Monday to be taught on a one-to-one basis away from classmates.

Today it was revealed one of three unions at the school - the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers - has voted for strike action. But they believe an arrangement already negotiated with the education authority has settled the matter.

The other two unions have balloted members and the results are expected a week on Monday.

General secretary of the NASUWT Nigel de Gruchy, said: "We have negotiated this quietly and have not seen the need to take any action, or issue any public statement."

Mr Thornley's decision to expel the boy was was backed by staff, governors and the local education authority.

The boy's mum, a single parent, appealed against his exclusion to the LEA but failed and then took the matter to an independent appeals panel, which ruled he must be returned to school.

The teenager will be taught by a teacher from the home tuition service, in isolation from other pupils, at a different time and on a different time-table.

A spokesman for one of the other unions, the NUT, said its members believed teaching the boy in isolation was "not satisfactory for the child or the school. The child really ought to be in another school."

The boy's mother said she had been told by her solicitor not to speak to the media.

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