A HUDDERSFIELD teacher has welcomed extra protection for teachers facing accusations from pupils.

Hazel Danson welcomed the measures which will give anonymity to teachers accused by pupils and to protect against false accusations.

But she did have concerns about new powers giving teachers the right to stop and search pupils.

“Obviously we would welcome anything which would further protect teachers against vexatious and spurious allegations.

“There have been some recent high-profile cases,” she said.

But she called for investment in staff training to deal with behaviour and discipline overall.

“There is a huge need for consistency in behaviour management across schools and good quality training,” she said.

Mrs Danson, who serves on the National Union of Teachers West Yorkshire executive, did express concerns about new powers for teachers to stop and search pupils for a wide range of belonging, including mobile phones and MP3 players.

Currently head teachers and authorised school staff have the statutory power to search without consent anyone who is suspected of carrying a knife or other weapon.

Alcohol, controlled drugs, mobile phones and stolen property will be added from September 1 this year.

She also expressed concerns about schools not needing to give 24 hours notice before issuing a detention.

Mrs Danson said there were potential safeguarding issues regarding this policy.

“It sounds simple but putting this sort of thing into practice is more difficult. It might cause more problems than it is solving,” she said.

Some of the measures were also welcomed by Huddersfield education expert Prof Cedric Cullingford.

Prof Cullingford, of the University of Huddersfield, has written several books about classroom behaviour.

He said anything which gave teachers more autonomy to deal with classroom problems was to be welcomed. But he added: “It is the right thing but for the wrong reasons.

“Research from all over the world shows that the more we remove central or Government control from education, the better pupils learn.

“But young children learn bad ways at home and from peer groups and not just at school. The attention needs to be in all those places”.

The raft of measures, which have won support from the teaching profession, were unveiled by Schools Minister Nick Gibb in an effort to restore discipline to the classroom.

Official figures show 2,230 pupils were permanently excluded last year for physical assaults on teachers or fellow pupils and tens of thousands more suspended.

One in five secondary schools is rated “satisfactory” or worse by Ofsted for behaviour and two in five teachers have witnessed physical aggression – a quarter of them being the victims of it.