THE number of verbal and physical assaults on school staff has risen in nearly half of Scottish council areas, figures show.

Statistics obtained under a Freedom of Information request showed 10 of the 24 local authorities who responded reported an increase between 2012/13 and 2013/14.

The other eight Scottish councils either did not respond to the request or did not provide full figures.

While most incidents involved verbal abuse, staff reported being subjected to physical attacks such as punching, kicking, pushing and shoving. In the last year, one teacher reported having a stone thrown at their head, while others reported being kicked, pushed and spat on.

However, the overall level of threat to teachers has declined, with a total of 1,879 incidents in 2013/14, against 1,917 the previous year - a two per cent drop.

The information was requested by the Scottish Conservative Party and Liz Smith, the party's spokeswoman for young people, called for a "zero-tolerance" approach to poor behaviour in schools.

She said: "Teachers should not be subjected to any form of assault, no matter how minor it may appear. It just should not happen.

"It is important, therefore, to make sure teachers feel empowered to take the necessary action and, where necessary, headteachers should not shy away from expelling pupils who are persistent, serious troublemakers and who are preventing others from getting on in the classroom."

Larry Flanagan, general secret­ary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union, said any increase in assaults was a matter for concern.

He said: "While we know the majority of incidents in our schools are low-level in nature, there are a number of incidents of a more serious nature involving violence, threat of violence or intimidation.

"Although these remain a very small percentage of cases, the EIS is very clear that a zero-tolerance approach should be taken to such events, including police involvement where violence has been used or threatened. There is no circumstance where it is accept­able for any employee, including a teacher, to feel physically threatened in the workplace.

"We cannot have a situation where a teacher has been assaulted and the pupil responsible is not removed from that school register, as has happened in some areas."

A spokesman for local authority body Cosla said violence in Scotland's schools was always unacceptable, but was rare.

He said: "Scotland's councils take the safety of their pupils and staff very seriously and all have policy procedures in place to record every incident of violence within schools and all such recorded incidents are swiftly dealt with in the appropriate manner.

"The vast majority of pupils are well behaved and permanent exclusion should always be the last resort."

There was also concern over whether the figures give an accurate picture of the levels of aggression towards teachers because of the way such incidents are recorded in different areas.

Some councils included verbal assaults in the figures - while others did not - so comparisons between areas are impossible. For example, Renfrewshire Council reported the highest number of incidents in 2013/14, with 277 assaults on staff, but Stirling reported just one incident in the same year.

A Renfrewshire spokesman said the majority of the statistics referred to verbal aggression against all school employees and not just teachers.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The vast majority of pupils are well-behaved and a credit to Scotland. However, any attack on a teacher is one too many and the Scottish Government is committed to working to improve behaviour in schools."