Thousands more pupils have been excluded from school for physically attacking teachers and other adults, new figures reveal.

There was a 13 per cent increase in the number of pupils given permanent or fixed-term exclusions for assaulting adults in 2016-17, compared with 2015-16.

The latest statistics published by the Department for Education also show that fixed-term and permanent exclusions resulting from attacks on pupils are also on the rise.

There were 26,695 pupils given a fixed-term exclusion for assaulting adults in 2016-17, compared with 23,440 in the previous year.

The number of permanent exclusions of students for assaulting adults also rose from 730 to 745.

Pupils attacking pupils

Pupils attacking other children appears to be an increasing problem.

Permanent exclusions resulting from assaults on pupils rose to 1,025 from 825, over the same period. And there were 64,355 fixed-term exclusions for attacks on pupils in 2016-17, up from 59,880 a year earlier.

Persistent disruptive behaviour was an even bigger reason for exclusions, accounting for 35 per cent of permanent exclusions and 28 per cent of fixed-term exclusions in 2016-17.

The number of pupils who were given a fixed-term exclusion for being disruptive increased from 94,025 in 2015-16 to 108,640 in 2016-17.

The most recent figures show that there were 2,755 pupils permanently excluded for persistently disruptive behaviour, compared with 2,310 a year earlier - a 19 per cent increase.

Other major reasons for permanent exclusions included verbal assaults on adults or pupils and drug or alcohol-related incidents.

There were also 105 pupils permanently excluded for sexual misconduct in 2016-17, compared with 70 a year earlier.

The number of pupils being expelled for bullying fell sharply, however, from 40 in 2015-16 to 25 in 2016-17.

Overall, the number of permanent exclusions from state schools rose by 15 per cent, with 40 pupils now being banned from their school every day.

Figures show that the number of permanent exclusions across all state-funded primary, secondary and special schools increased from 6,685 in 2015-16 to 7,720 in 2016-17.

This means there were around 40.6 permanent exclusions per day in 2016-17, up from 35.2 per day in 2015-16.