Behaviour in schools is worse than it was five years ago, with pupils as young as five being disrespectful, intimidating and violent, a survey of teachers suggests today.

Disruption due to naughty students is now routine, with almost nine in 10 (87 per cent) of school staff saying they have dealt with an unruly pupil this year.

Almost four in 10 (38.6 per cent) teachers encountered physical aggression in the classroom. While most said this was towards another pupil, more than a quarter (25.9 per cent) said the violence was directed at them, the poll by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found.

Nearly half (48.8 per cent) of teachers who dealt with bad behaviour said they had faced students using their fists, while four in 10 (41.2 per cent) said they had seen pupils kicking.

More than one in five (23.7 per cent) dealt with a child for spitting, the poll found.

And 1.4 per cent said they dealt with incidents of a child stabbing or attempting to stab someone with a knife, pen or pencil.

A head of department in a Surrey state school told researchers: "In the past year I have been involved with incidents of smoking, drug abuse, assault, pupils 'losing it' and being out of control, very strong and repeated verbal abuse to staff and management, use of mobile phones in class, cyberbullying, etc.

"Such incidents are increasing and taking away teacher time from the main purpose of our jobs, i.e teaching."

The problems appear to be worse among younger children, with almost half of those questioned (48.3 per cent) reporting incidents of physical aggression in the classroom by a primary age pupil, compared to a fifth (19.8 per cent) in secondaries.

Almost six in 10 (59.2 per cent) of school staff believe pupil behaviour worsened in the last five years, and 46.1 per cent think it worsened in the last two years.