The NEU teaching union has described zero-tolerance policies as “inhumane”, as delegates backed a motion calling for local authorities to have oversight over academies’ approach to behaviour.

At the union’s annual conference in Liverpool today, teacher Anna Wolmuth, from Islington, London, described zero-tolerance as a “euphemism for child abuse” and said that children were being made to cry in assembly and spending six hours a day in isolation booths”.

She also said the policies were disproportionately affecting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

“While classrooms may be calm, the referral rooms are full of SEND pupils and pupils with things going on at home,” she said.

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“There is an acceptance that this is what works without thinking of the impact on a child’s mental health.”

Ms Wolmuth also condemned academy trusts that used “flattening the grass” behaviour policies.

But Stuart Allen, from Torfaen, Wales said it was sometimes necessary for teachers to be able to remove pupils from lessons if they were being disruptive, and isolation rooms might be better referred to as “Damascus rooms”.

He added: “I am all too aware about the criticism some schools might attract if they enforce strong behaviour policies.

“But if a pupil is being disruptive, what about the other 29 pupils? What about their rights? Sometimes, a pupil can’t be moved to another class because there might be another teacher there.”

The motion, passed this morning, states “that zero-tolerance policies are inhumane… They promote surface level compliance without addressing the needs underlying challenging behaviour.”

It also calls for local authorities to have “oversight and involvement of the development of behaviour policies for all academies/schools in their districts”.

Teacher Sally Kincald, from Wakefield, told the story of a year 7 pupil in isolation who was punished for saying thank you to canteen staff for his lunch when he was not allowed to speak.

She said that zero-tolerance approaches were “not behaviour policies but punishment policies”.

Maths teacher Carole Buxton from Camden, London, told journalists that zero-tolerance behaviour policies came from schools placing an emphasis on academic achievement and pupils gaining A*s.

She added: “It’s also students who aim for A*s who suffer because the expectations on them are so high.”