A former Kent head teacher has blamed the "nanny state" for the levels of violence in the county's schools.

Peter Walker, who used to be in charge at The Abbey School, Faversham, said teachers are no longer able to discipline children for fear of the consequences.

They are now forced to call in police whenever a violent incident takes place - and figures out on Tuesday show Kent's officers were called to schools 425 times in the past year.

The county's schools have made the third highest number of calls in England (only the Metropolitan Police and Thames Valley had higher figures, with 2,700 and 697 respectively).

Overall, police were called to a total of 7,311 incidents in schools for attempted or actual violence in the past year.

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Mr Walker said: "The picture has got worse - but even in my very early days of teaching the situation was bad in some parts. Teachers and head teachers just had more power then.

"We do need to cut down the number of acts of violence in schools, but on the other hand when teachers do have to deal with this kind of situation they can be afraid - not just because of being hurt, but also because they could be accused of harming a child by the child themselves. You have to be very careful."

~ Listen: Hear more from Mr Walker's interview with kmfm >>>

Cllr Mark Dance, KCC cabinet member for education operations, resources and skills, said: "KCC and Kent Police have in place an agreed protocol which covers the involvement of police in incidents occurring on school sites.

"This helps to ensure schools contact the police for assistance in appropriate circumstances. As Kent is the largest local authority, and has 599 schools, we would expect more calls to the police than smaller authorities."

Shadow Children's Secretary Michael Gove said: "The number of violent incidents in schools that lead to police being called is very worrying.

"Teachers, parents and children are all too aware of the threat of violence in schools and the corrosive effect it has on creating a safe learning environment.

"There will always be the odd occasion when teachers need to call on the police for support with a serious incident but at the moment they do not have sufficient powers to nip discipline problems in the bud.

"We want to give teachers more authority to remove disruptive and violent children from the classroom and to tackle problems of bad behaviour before they spiral out of control."

• The figures were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Conservative Party - but only 25 out of 39 forces responded.