New measures to help tackle bad behaviour in schools have been welcomed by education chiefs in Oxfordshire.

Education and Skills Secretary Charles Clarke yesterday outlined a package of measures, including:

New powers for headteachers to search pupils suspected of carrying knives without waiting for the police.

Rights for headteachers to request unannounced police searches in schools to detect and deter weapons.

Rules to share out difficult pupils more fairly between schools with a limit on the number of excluded pupils each school would have to admit.

New procedures for dealing with allegations made against teachers to make sure cases are dealt with quickly, fairly and consistently.

A crackdown on 'compensation culture' so that teachers can feel more confident taking pupils on school trips.

Oxfordshire County Council education service said it supported all the proposals.

Spokesman John Mitchell said many of the proposals, particulary those concerning excluded pupils, were already being implemented in the county.

He said: "For many years Oxfordshire's secondary school headteachers have worked co-operatively with one another in relation to taking excluded pupils; among other things this has helped to ensure a reasonable distribution of more challenging pupils.

"We have now moved a step further and more formalised agreements are in place which enable a pupil at immediate risk of exclusion to be moved to a new school, with parents' agreement, before an exclusion is necessary."

As reported in yesterday's Oxford Mail, the proposals -- announced just three days after an 11-year-old boy was stabbed in the thigh by a classmate on the way home from Fitzharrys School in Abingdon -- had a mixed response from headteachers and unions and concerns remain about safety on school buses.

Adrian Percival, headteacher of Matthew Arnold School, Cumnor, said bus operators were responsible for safety on school buses.

Clive Hallett, Oxfordshire secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and headteacher at Wheatley Primary School said the measures would help tighten security in schools.

Two 11-year-old boys were arrested and released on bail until December 12 following the stabbing on Monday afternoon -- one on suspicion of wounding and possessing an offensive weapon and the other for possessing an offensive weapon.