Speaking at the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers' annual conference in Birmingham, general secretary Chris Keates said pupils were no longer frightened to abuse their teachers publicly on the street.
Keates said she had recently heard from teachers who had been followed home, harassed by email, and verbally abused in the street, and about pupils who camped outside teachers' homes shouting abuse.
"We have always had a steady stream of pupils who abuse teachers, but now pupils feel confident enough to do this in public," she said. "This shows the youth culture out on today's street."
Teachers told the conference how they were being worn out by bad behaviour.
Tim Cox, a member of the union's executive, said: "It's the 'tap tap' on the desk, the swinging back and forth of chairs, the wearing of hoodies, sunglasses, the mobile phones that wears us down.
"We all know the negative impact this can have on pupils, but we don't always know how best to deal with it. Things can escalate all too easily into major offences."
He said the only training in pupil misbehaviour that some new teachers received was from unions, not their schools.
"It's a sad fact that training is not provided by schools," he said. Unions, he said, were left to fill the gap.
Suzanne Nantcurvis, also on the union's national executive, said the problem of the high number of teachers leaving the profession would be solved if more attention was given to training teachers in how to deal with naughty pupils.
She said there was 'clear evidence' to suggest training courses on pupil misbehaviour worked, but that the emphasis placed on this in schools was poor.
"Given that school improvement is top of the agenda, I find it bizarre that this is the case," she said. "All teachers need the training to manage the increasingly challenging behaviour we see."
Sue Rogers, on the national executive, said: "This is the key to raising standards. Any attempt by the government to raise standards is going to come crashing down if you don't have good behaviour."
She described how she could 'smell the mood' of a classroom as she walked in. And how she had taught herself to deal with poor behaviour by "conning herself".
"I've thought I'll not let them see I have a cold because it's a sign of weakness. But I got to the point with one class that I so disliked going in, I told myself that I really enjoyed teaching them and eventually I conned myself that they were my favourite class. Things improved for me and for them. We know teaching is something of a con job."
Keates said schools were in part to blame for not using the powers to discipline their pupils that they had been given.
Schools now have the power to temporarily exclude pupils and discipline them off the school grounds.
Teachers voted to lobby government to improve the quality of training for new teachers across the UK and increase the number of training courses on pupil behaviour. Article Ends.
The outcomes can be seen on our streets with anti-social behaviour, much of which can result in similar outcomes in our prisons and young offender institutions. Regrettably, in order to address such behaviour society still tends to focus upon the use of punishment, failing to recognise that there is always an underlying cause and it is the cause that needs to be addressed - "Tough on Crime" "Tough on the causes of Crime". Until we understand this and provide our teachers and others with the skills and understanding to deal with such issues, little will change. The call for increased quality training for teachers is something that must also be delivered in many other sectors and the wider society. It is to be hoped that this call will be heard and implemented without simply resorting to yet more punishment as the sole means of meeting the requirement.
