Foremost School sees 67 teacher and carer assaults

The school has 20 pupils and is in special measures

Teachers and carers have been assaulted 67 times in 18 months at a residential special school for boys with behavioural and social difficulties.

The figure for Foremost School near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, is from a BBC Freedom of Information request.

The 20-pupil school is in special measures after an earlier Ofsted inspection and costs £2m a year to run.

North Yorkshire County Council said: "The number of assaults is decreasing and progress has been made."

"There is still some distance to go to address weaknesses in the consistency of teaching and learning," the statement added.

Julian Smith, Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon, said: "It is a difficult situation here.

"I think we all want to do our best to make sure there is a positive solution."

Former naval site

An Ofted inspection in March rated the school as inadequate.

The council said it was in the middle of "important reflections" on the school's role.

The school opened in 2012 after the merger of two different schools and during that year three teachers and seven of the 12 governors resigned from the school.

Staff and pupils at the school are housed in a revamped former naval site at Forest Moor.

The £11m facility was built to cater for students who have been removed from mainstream education because of difficult behaviour.