More than 1,350 crimes have been reported in schools in Sussex in the last year.

Since March 2005, more than 230 crimes have been reported at schools in Brighton and Hove, more than 830 in East Sussex and 305 in Crawley and Mid Sussex combined, according to figures released under a Freedom of Information request.

Reports include allegations of assault, burglary, wounding, drugs offences, criminal damage, theft and harassment.

Steve Hill, from the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), said although violent attacks on staff and pupils were rare, many acts of vandalism put people in danger.

He said: "Only today I've been at a meeting about a Year 7 student who threw a chair across the class which hit a woman teacher full in the face.

"So pupil violence does account for some of the crimes reported.

"It's astonishing how slivers of broken glass can collect on bookshelves from kids smashing windows or a break-in and they are not necessarily pupils."

Bexhill High School had 44 police callouts - the highest in the county. Mike Conn, the principal of the 1,600-student specialist technology college, said it was one of the largest in the area.

He said: "We call the police when we think we need to and our partnership with them is very positive."

A full-time police officer is based at the school, working with challenging students to prevent them being excluded.

Varndean School in Brighton involved the police 31 times. Last weekend it reported thousands of pounds of damage after 19 windows were smashed.

Like Bexhill, it has a police intervention officer to solve and prevent crime and work with pupils.

Headteacher Andy Schofield said: "It's symptomatic of society that schools need support. Teachers don't have the authority to deal with the type of crimes that are happening today. Police have the power of arrest and that is often what's needed."

Marian Darke, the South-East regional secretary for the National Union of Teachers, said: "There are occasions where members of the public or parents get involved and tempers run high but it is unusual for the police to be called frequently to schools because of violent incidents.

"To say schools are unruly or dangerous is untrue. They are extremely civilised places."

She said pupils' behaviour was sometimes an issue and accounted for some of the police callouts, but it was low-level disruption that was having a profound effect on teaching staff.

She said: "Occasionally a violent incident occurs and it's traumatic for those involved, but we have more problems with teachers who are stressed and retire early through ill health because of day-today unruly behaviour."

An East Sussex County Council spokeswoman said safety of staff and pupils was a "top priority".

The figures released do not cover parts of West Sussex, including Worthing and Chichester.