Call to fit CCTV in schools

School security must be beefed up to stem the rising tide of classroom violence, teachers said today.

Staff should be equipped with metal detectors to carry out checks for concealed weapons, and CCTV cameras should be installed to discourage fighting, the NASUWT teacher union said.

Signs on the walls should warn pupils and parents that they will be prosecuted if they turn violent. The union also wants teachers to have access to the "rap sheet" of pupils expelled from other schools before they are put into a new class.

It believes they should not have to teach children who have a history of violent or seriously disruptive behaviour.

At the union's annual conference in Brighton, Paul Davies, a science teacher from Wrexham, North Wales, described scenes of mayhem at his former school, St David's, which was shut and re-opened as Rhosnesni High School following an ?8 million rebuild.

Mr Davies, secretary of the Wrexham NASUWT branch, told of how, in one lesson, two pupils began shooting air guns at each other across the classroom. He said the number of "extreme" incidents in schools was still relatively small, but warned: "Serious violence is on the rise."

Rhosnesni High now has 35 CCTV cameras fitted in corridors and pupil lavatories, which are often the worst places for vandalism and bullying. Mr Davies added: "I know they work."

Wrexham County Borough Council has agreed to put up signs warning violent pupils and parents that they will be prosecuted in its 90 primary, secondary and special schools.

Mr Davies said hand-held metal detectors should be trialled in a group of schools and rolled out nationally if they prove effective.