Young pupils attacked teachers in Sussex more than 50 times in a year.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act, showed that in the 12 months to March this year there were 55 crime reports logged where an under 16 had been involved in a violent crime against an adult at a school.

That was a slight increase on the figures from a year earlier when there were 53 attacks reported but is a reduction on 2005-06, when there were 61.

Brighton and Hove city councillor Ben Duncan, a member of Sussex Police Authority and the community safety spokesman for the city’s Green Party, said: “These figures are pretty shocking.

Even one violent attack by a school pupil on a staff member is one too many.

“But these figures show things aren’t getting worse, despite all the publicity and hype about rising levels of violent crime throughout society.”

One headteacher, who asked not to be named, said the figures could be misleading because they did not take into account the varying severity of incidents.

He said: “Incidents are exceptionally rare and they vary considerably. The word assault can mean a variety of different things, from something very small to something dramatic.

“It is something the court system is very strong on because of the disastrous and awful death of Philip Lawrence.”

The new statistics also reveal how many violent crimes by pupils on pupils have been recorded.

In 2007-08 there were 154 incidents where both the attacker and victim were under 16 – a fall of 62 from the 216 reported in each of the two previous years.

Sussex Police said it had one police officer based at a school as part of work to deter crime and four others specifically responsible for monitoring school safety.

There are also 13 police community support officers allocated to monitoring schools.

Coun Duncan said: “We need more spent on neighbourhood policing and more time for the school-police partnerships.”

East Sussex County Council said it supported schools and headteachers who had responsibility for setting their own behaviour policies.

A spokesman said: “Obviously violence of any description is completely unacceptable and is taken extremely seriously."

West Sussex County Council pointed out the figures would also include crimes at community events held at schools.

A spokeswoman said: “Attacks on an authority figure by a young person within a school setting are extremely rare. When they do occur the full range of disciplinary sanctions are used to reinforce the fact that schools must be safe for everyone.”