The number of primary school pupils suspended for attacking staff rose 5.6 per cent to more than 7,000 last year, about 35 each school day. The number permanently excluded for such attacks rose 7.7 per cent to 280.

Exclusions of pupils under 5 also rose. However, the total number of exclusions and suspensions from state schools fell, official statistics showed yesterday.

Permanent exclusions from primary, secondary and special state schools fell 6.4 per cent to 8,130. Suspensions fell 10.8 per cent to 325,000 at secondaries and 5.3 per cent to 43,290 at primaries. The overall school-age population fell about 2 per cent to 157,000.

Attacks on teachers or other pupils accounted for 45 per cent of permanent exclusions in primary schools, and a quarter of those in secondary schools.

The figures give a racial breakdown for the first time. Gypsies and Irish travellers were most likely to be excluded, followed by black Caribbean, and mixed-race white and black Caribbean pupils. About 16 per cent of male, black Caribbean pupils were suspended last year, almost three times the average.

The figures also showed that pupils at academies — the semi-independent state schools often set up in deprived areas — have twice the rate of exclusions of other schools. It has been alleged that academies get rid of large numbers of disruptive pupils as a way of improving results at formerly failing schools.

The number of young primary school children removed permanently rose from 10 pupils aged 4 and under in 2007 to 20 last year. Seventy children aged 5 were excluded last year, compared with 50 the year before.

A further 1,240 children aged under 4 were suspended from school at least once, a slight reduction on last year. However 2,860 five-year-olds faced such a suspension, a 6 per cent rise on last year.

Boys were three and a half times more likely to be permanently excluded and three times more likely to face a fixed-term exclusion (suspension).

David Laws, Liberal Democrat schools spokesman, said: “Although permanent exclusions are down, there is a strong suspicion that the Government is fiddling figures by not declaring the transfer from one school to another of children who have effectively been excluded. Yet again, we see a divide between rich and poor in our education system, with those children entitled to free school meals being far more likely to be excluded.”

Nick Gibb, the Shadow Schools Minister, said too many children were being allowed to return to school after committing assaults. Dawn Primarolo, the Children’s Minister, said: “It is positive to see the rate of exclusions decreasing, indicating that behaviour in our schools is getting better. It is time to put to bed the myth that behaviour is deteriorating.”

UK Youth, a national charity that works with young people excluded from school, said that there remained a clear link between deprivation and exclusions.John Bateman, its chief executive, said: “Young people who are at risk of exclusion need access to a personalised curriculum that motivates them together with support from teachers, youth workers and mentors.”

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