Primary school teachers deal with the highest levels of violence and aggression across North Ayrshire Council premises a report has revealed.
There have been 421 cases of children behaving in a violent or aggressive manner in the area's primaries over the past financial year.
It shows an increase of 156 compared to the year before.
Most of the incidents involved physical violence.
Secondary schools recorded fewer than a quarter of that figure - with 92 incidents logged between April 1, 2018 and March 31 this year.
Pupils with special needs being placed in mainstream schooling could be behind the increase in primary school incidents according to the council report.
The document said children with additional needs can get frustrated and lash out due to a medical condition, medication or circumstances.
It said: “This is largely because of children with Additional Support Needs where each child’s needs, such as a medical condition, associated medication and or circumstance, can affect their levels of frustration or behaviour.
"This can result in three or four reports being submitted on the same day involving the same child.”
The incidents are logged as being without intent to injury.
Additional support schools recorded 242 incidents of violence and aggression over the last year.
Physical violence across all North Ayrshire schools has shot up by a third to 627 incidents over the period.
The figures were revealed in the council’s health and safety report covering the period from April 2018 to the end of March this year.
Across the whole council there were 1250 health and safety incidents in the financial year 2018 to 2019.
The report was presented at last week's council cabinet, which heard staff were diligent in logging incidents.
James Walls, Corporate Health and Safety Manager, said: “People are getting used to the fact that the system is there and they need to report incidents.”
There have been 100 incidents of people slipping, tripping or falling in the council and a campaign was introduced to reduce that number.
Training and workshop sessions have been rolled out across the council to raise awareness of health and safety.
Unannounced visits from the health and safety team have also been carried out to conduct checks.
