By Justin Parkinson BBC News education reporter, at the NASUWT conference

Schools will be offered support with difficult pupils

More will be done to protect teachers from violent and disruptive pupils, the school standards minister has promised.

Stephen Twigg told members of the NASUWT union at their annual conference in Brighton such behaviour would "not be tolerated".

He also said the government would tackle the "disturbing" knife culture among some pupils.

On Tuesday the NASUWT voted for more abusive children to be permanently excluded from mainstream schools.

'Making progress'

Conference delegates had already heard how even primary pupils were causing distress to teachers.

Violence and bad behaviour by pupils or parents against members of school staff will not be tolerated Stephen Twigg

Some members of staff had been spat at, punched, slapped, or even stabbed.

Mr Twigg said: "We are making progress in tackling bad behaviour in schools but we must go further.

"Violence and bad behaviour by pupils or parents against members of school staff will not be tolerated.

"We fully back head teachers' tough decisions to remove or prosecute anyone - whether parent or pupil - who is behaving in an aggressive way."

'Knives amnesty'

Mr Twigg has published a blueprint for schools to work together in "education improvement partnerships", looking at behaviour, among other issues.

The number of pupils expelled from school had dropped by a quarter since 1997, he said.

Mr Twigg reiterated the government's commitment to establish a "knives amnesty", along the lines of that pioneered by police in London, if Labour wins the general election.

It was important that every pupil was "well-behaved, respected, respectful and ready to learn".

The Conservatives want to scrap the independent appeal panels which occasionally return pupils to school after they have been expelled.

The Liberal Democrats stress the need for a better curriculum to engage pupils' interest and try to avoid problems arising in the first place.

Addressing delegates Mr Twigg backed the NASUWT's campaign to force all head teachers to abide by the workload agreement for England and Wales.

This allowed teachers time outside the classroom for marking and lesson preparation and reduced their administrative duties, such as taking the register and monitoring break times.

'Security havens'

The union is writing to all heads and governors in the one in 10 schools it thinks is not implementing the agreement, reminding them they could face legal action or the sack.

Mr Twigg was applauded when he said heads' contractual obligations would "be enforced".

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: "We should be questioning governors and local education authorities where there is apparently one rule for the managers and another rule for the managed."