New legislation is needed to curb the growing use of litigation against schools, head teachers say.

Unions said their members were increasingly being faced with legal action.

They say parents are threatening to sue over everything from permanent exclusions to accidents at school, admissions policies and even exam results.

They claim that, unless something is done to control the trend, relations between teachers and parents could be badly damaged and school outings could become a thing of the past.

Virtual courts

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said many of his members had become seriously upset about the growth of litigation.

Mr Hart said exclusion appeal hearings had become virtually courts of law, with teachers rather than pupils in the dock.

There are also concerns about the tactics of some claims management firms.

They have been drumming up business by knocking on parents' doors and telling them they could sue for accidents in the playground or classroom.

Exclusions

A representative of the Secondary Heads Association said many of its members were very concerned about what they saw as the creeping nature of litigation.

He said many head teachers were seriously considering resigning because they felt schools were virtually run by lawyers.

The warning comes after new official figures showed there was an increase in the number of children expelled from schools in England for the first time in years.

There were an estimated 9,210 permanent exclusions from English state schools in the last full school year, with the biggest increase being in primary schools.

Parental appeals against exclusion had increased - although their success rate in fact declined a little.