Ambulances were called to schools in Sussex 1,125 times last year - at a cost of up to £1 million.

The call-outs included sexual assaults, suicide bids, carbon monoxide poisoning, heart attacks, strokes, drug overdoses and falls in the playground.

The figures released to The Argus cover 2006 and equate to more than seven calls to schools every day, over a 151-day school year.

Accidental injuries accounted for 272 of the calls, including knocks and bumps.

Staff at secondary schools called ambulances 31 times to deal with drug overdoses and another seven times to deal with psychiatric emergencies, including suicide attempts.

There were also 301 falls and 23 assaults which prompted a 999 call, including three in primary schools.

These included an incident last July in St Mary's Primary School in Link Lane, Pulborough; Harlands Primary School in Mallard Drive, Uckfield in January 2006 and last May at Polegate County Primary School in Oakleaf Drive.

In 23 incidents ambulances were called to deal with severe bleeding.

Injuries in road accidents while on or just outside school premises accounted for 30 of the calls.

There were 111 incidents of people collapsing or nearly collapsing into unconsciousness.

And there were 78 times when fits and convulsions were so serious an ambulance was needed.

There were two incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning at Bexhill High School and Chichester High School.

Severe allergic reactions accounted for eight of the calls.

Abdominal pains prompted 23 calls, while there were also 13 calls for back pain, 73 for breathing difficulties, four for burns or scalds, 17 for chest pains, three for choking incidents, six for incidents involving diabetics, six eye injuries, eight headaches, eight heart problems, 23 cases of heavy bleeding, four pregnancy-related calls and two strokes There was one stab or gunshot wound at the Priory School in Lewes last November.

The school with the highest number of calls was Bexhill High School, which called an ambulance 61 times last year - once every two days during term time.

Mike Conn, principal at Bexhill High School, said the high figures were not an indication that the school was any more dangerous than any other.

He said most of the calls were related to injuries sustained on the sports field and said staff had strict instructions to call an ambulance if there were any concerns about a child's health, particularly where a head injury was involved.

He said: "We had an incident where we were advised by NHS Direct to send a child with a head injury home. The parents had to take the child to casualty with concussion later that evening, and they were understandably very angry that we had sent them home. Since then my policy is to call for an ambulance in every instance where a head injury was involved.

"We may call more ambulances than any other school, but I don't care. The children's welfare must come first.

"It is very difficult because there is a cost to the public purse. Sometimes it would be useful to be able to call out a paramedic to have a child looked over but we don't necessarily need an ambulance as well.

"We have had no complaints from the ambulance service."

The information was given to The Argus by the South East Coast Ambulance Service as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request.

Spokeswoman Janine Bell said: "We do attend a lot of incidents at schools, but we also attend a lot of incidents in supermarkets and railway stations - anywhere there is a high concentration of people.

"We are not aware of there being any cause for concern in the number of call-outs."

Each call-out costs around £80 to £100.