Teachers are being subjected to verbal threats and even physical violence outside the school gates by their pupils.

That’s one of the ‘deeply disturbing’ findings of a survey conducted by teaching union NASUWT. But education chiefs and the other teaching unions have questioned the validity of the claims.

The survey highlights an apparent problem with pupil behaviour in some Manx schools which the union describes as ‘alarming’ and believes is not being recognised by the management.

And the NASUWT claims there is a ‘culture of denial’ among Ministers about the extent of the problem.

Now the union is calling on the island’s Department of Education and Children to take urgent steps to ensure schools have strong powers to address poor behaviour both inside and outside the school gates.

Eighty NASUWT members took part in the survey – about one in 10 of teachers in the island – with most being high school teachers.

An overwhelming majority (82 per cent) said they had experienced verbal abuse or threats from pupils outside school premises, while almost one in 10 had been subject to violence or physical threats. A similar number had received online abuse through social media sites or email.

Last November, we reported how the NASUWT was threatening to take legal action after two staff at Ballakermeen High School were allegedly ‘harassed and abused’ by pupils.

At the time, the DEC said it had taken the issue seriously and police had taken ‘appropriate’ action against the students involved, some of whom were no longer pupils.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: ‘This survey highlights a series of deeply disturbing findings.

‘It cannot be acceptable the overwhelming majority of teachers are reporting they are being subject to verbal abuse and threats outside of school and some are even being attacked.’

NASUWT’s national executive member for the Isle of Man, Damien McNulty, said: ‘It is outrageous some teachers are being subject to physical threats and violence, sometimes outside their own homes, just for doing their job.’

The NASUWT survey also found disruption and poor behaviour are impacting on the time staff spend on teaching in the classroom. Nearly a third of teachers reported that up to half an hour was lost each day as a result.

Around one in seven of teachers reported their school did not have a behaviour policy in place and a majority didn’t think the policy was being applied consistently.

But in a joint statement, the other teaching unions - NUT, ATL, NAHT and ASCL - between them representing the majority of teachers and headteachers, questioned the validity of the findings which they described as ‘overstated’.

They said: ‘Anyone who has worked in or visited a school in the Isle of Man will know this is not a true reflection of the young people in our schools.'

The DEC said it had ‘serious concerns’ about the report’s validity, the methods used to generate the data and its conclusions.

It pointed out that the overwhelming majority of teachers did not participate in the survey, and suggested the questions asked were misleading. ‘The negative picture of behaviour in schools portrayed by the NASUWT is far from the reality,’ it said.

The DEC insisted the scale of problem behaviour outside the school gates was not as significant as claimed. It said police had taken action on only three reported assaults on teachers over the last five years.

It said it had recently agreed a protocol to outline steps which a school, police and other bodies can take to protect staff but that any response had to be proportionate.