You have youngsters arriving at nursery school completely out of control

Nigel de Gruchy, NASUWT

The NUT's John Bangs said: "The idea came from a group of teachers who had never been to a union meeting before but wanted to get together to discuss behaviour.

"They said they wanted someone to come in if a child became uncontrollable - to take them out for 10 to 15 minutes or even half an hour - just to cool down."

The department for education has said the idea will be carefully considered.

A spokesman said: "We want to tackle all barriers to raising standards and that includes disruptive behaviour.

"We have made significant progress but there is much more we can do."

Mr Bangs, of the NUT, told the Commons education select committee that four out of five teachers believed the behaviour of the most disruptive pupils had "declined significantly" over the past decade.

Nursery problems

The committee was also addressed by Nigel de Gruchy, the general secretary of the other big teaching union, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women.

He said that behaviour problems sometimes began very early.

"In most cases one can see a child has problems before they get anywhere near a school," he said.

"You have youngsters arriving at nursery school completely out of control.

"You can't blame teachers for that - it's the home background, or lack of it."