Teachers buy their own body armour

Arm guards designed for use when training dogs and jabs against infections such as ­tetanus and hepatitis B are as indispensable to some teachers as red ballpens, a conference was told.

In a separate report the wave of violence in schools was said to be fuelled by badly behaved footballers, while celebrity sex scandals encouraged teenage promiscuity.

Suzanne Nantcurvis, of the NASUWT teaching union, told its annual meeting: “For colleagues in special schools and specialist settings such as pupil referral units, these are often daily occurrences.”

She said biting was recognised as a big issue and risk assessments often called for arm guards to protect teachers. But, with tight budgets, “this type of item may well go down the list of priorities,” she said.

“In fact I know of members buying their own arm guards,” she added.

“I sat in the staff room of a special school listening to teachers nonchalantly talking about their daily experiences of being kicked and bitten and their visits to hospital ­outpatients departments.”

Another teacher told how a teacher was removing a pupil from a classroom when he kicked and punched her, breaking her thumb.

It also emerged yesterday that the number of suspensions is soaring because schools find it difficult to permanently expel playground yobs.

In a report after a four-year investigation into school discipline, Sir Alan Steer, a retired headmaster, deplored the woeful example set by some footballers and celebrities.

He called for a ban on TVs in children’s bedrooms and more “parenting contracts” to manage unruly children, with fines up to £1,000 for those who fail to do so.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls welcomed the report, which urges teachers to use games like TV’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? to grab pupils’ attention. But Tory schools spokesman Nick Gibb said: “Ministers asking teachers to put on game shows is not the answer.”