VIOLENT and abusive behaviour by pupils towards teachers — including punching, kicking, shoving and being spat at — is getting worse, according to a poll of the profession by the NASUWT teaching union.

More than four in five teachers think the number of pupils exhibiting such behaviour has increased, in shocking findings released on the first day of the union’s annual conference in Liverpool today.

Delegates at the NASUWT conference will debate a motion which suggests that reports of “extreme pupil indiscipline,” including incidents involving knives and other weapons, are on the rise.