THERE were more than 1,000 suspensions of Oxfordshire pupils last year because of threats and abuse towards staff, new figures show.

Today, the Oxford Mail reveals a school-by-school breakdown of suspensions which show the level of disruptive and unruly behaviour in our classrooms.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal major variations in the number of suspensions between county secondaries.

Headteachers said strict behaviour policies accounted for rises and falls in suspensions, by picking up on bad behaviour and stamping it out.

At Didcot’s all-boys St Birinus School, which last year had 1,229 pupils, there were 348 suspensions – about one for every four pupils. That made it the highest ratio of suspensions to pupils in the county.

But the figures did not show how many of those were for repeatedly disruptive pupils.

Headteacher Alwyn Richards said only about 20 pupils were responsible for the “vast majority” of the suspensions.

He said: “All schools face the challenge of these small cohorts of repeat recidivists.

“That is the big dilemma, the big interesting question. How do we stop these recidivists turning into permanent exclusions? It is very, very hard.”

Mr Richards took up the post in September last year and said a new “more consistent” behaviour policy partly accounted for the rise, and suspensions are now falling.

He said: “The behaviour of the boys in this school is fantastic.”

The school was last week named one of the most improved in the county for GCSE results.

In the last academic year, there were 3,471 county suspensions compared to 3,183 in 2009/10.

The most common reasons last year were for verbal abuse or threatening behaviour towards an adult (1,049) and persistent disruptive behaviour (967). There were 555 suspensions and seven expulsions as a result of a physical assault on an adult.

Didcot Girls’ School headteacher Rachael Warwick said suspensions rose from 87 in 2009/10 to 216 last year because of policies she introduced when she took up the post in 2010.

A 2009 Ofsted inspection said staff “underestimated” the impact on lessons of a small, disruptive group.

Mrs Warwick said: “There was a job to be done in setting behaviour standards.

“Because there was not a consistent behaviour policy, different incidents were treated in different ways.”

Sue Croft, headteacher at Oxford Spires Academy, East Oxford, which reopened at the former Oxford School in January, said suspensions had fallen under the new name.

Mrs Croft said: “Before, we were having children suspended and coming back and being suspended again.”

An “integration meeting” when the child returns, which outlines expectations of behaviour, was cutting repeated suspensions, she said.

Chris Harris, headteacher at Abingdon’s Larkmead School, where suspensions rose from 69 to 135 in two years, said: “What in the past might not be seen as bad behaviour might now be seen as bad behaviour.”

For example, pupils who refused to attend detention would have short, school-based suspensions, he said.

Wheatley Park School headteacher Kate Curtis said “clear boundaries” had cut suspensions from 194 to 80 in two years and from about 500 in 2005.

There is “some pressure” from the Government to reduce permanent exclusions, which some critics warn is driving up repeat suspensions, she said.

Permanent county exclusions fell in the past three years from 74 in 2008/09 to 40 in 2009/10 and then 33 last year.

Oxfordshire County Council would not identify the schools.

Daniel Iles, who was given an antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) aged 10, urged youngsters facing suspension to take the threat seriously.

The Greater Leys 18-year-old, who says he has turned his life around, said: “I would say to them ‘sort your life out and it is better on the other side’.”

Gawain Little, assistant Oxfordshire secretaryof the National Union of Teachers, said: “It is very important that physical and verbal abuse is taken seriously where it occurs. Our teachers do not go to work to be physically or verbally abused.”