A headteacher has told how staff at a North-East school were assaulted, threatened and even had their homes attacked by pupils before he took over.

Eamonn Farrar, acting headteacher of Eastbourne Comprehensive, Darlington, said the school was in chaos when he arrived in May.

Mr Farrar was drafted in as a result of the suspension of former headteacher Karen Pemberton, following a highly critical audit report.

The Northern Echo revealed on Saturday that Ms Pemberton would not be returning to the school after the publication of the report, which said alarming pupil behaviour and truancy was spiralling out of control.

Despite praising Ms Pemberton weeks earlier for being a driving force behind Eastbourne coming out of education watchdog Ofsted's special measures category, Mr Farrar insisted the school he found was in anarchy.

He told The Northern Echo: "We couldn't guarantee the safety of the children and parents had started wondering why they were sending their children to this school."

Seventeen children were permanently excluded from the school between September last year and July, seven of them after Mr Farrar's arrival at Easter. He also excluded 100 children temporarily.

Mr Farrar said of the school's problems: "There were some incidents of teachers being assaulted, abused and pushed around. Cars were damaged, stones thrown, tyres popped. Children had even damaged the houses of some staff."

But Mr Farrar said it had not been happening for very long, and added: "You don't get out of special measures unless you are providing a satisfactory education. We should have been set then, but it didn't happen that way."

When Mr Farrar was brought in, the school had 12 vacancies it could not fill and huge levels of staff absence.

"Supply teachers were coming, but some of them didn't last a day. They would stand in front of a class and foul language was used towards them," he said.

"The other teachers were trying really hard, but it was bad for morale.

"Parents were furious, they said their children were coming home frightened."

The National Union of Teachers is supportive of the tough stance taken against troublemakers.

The union recently unveiled a charter for pupil behaviour, to tackle the types of incidents revealed to have occurred at Eastbourne.

General secretary Steve Sinnott said the charter was designed to ensure that "every member of the school community can teach and learn, free from fear of physical or verbal abuse, or bullying".

But Darlington Borough Council said it was happy that behavioural and academic standards were now on the up.

A spokesman said: "Pupils' behaviour and attendance is constantly improving at Eastbourne and there is a very positive attitude within the school."

Ms Pemberton said she could not elaborate on her departure from Eastbourne, but had left to pursue other career opportunities.

Eastbourne could soon be replaced, along with Hurworth School, and the two brought together in a controversial £25m city academy.

Campaigners in Hurworth, near Darlington, have pledged to fight the borough council proposals.

Their protests will include one of the biggest anti-council demonstrations ever seen in Darlington, which will be held in the town centre on Saturday.

Members of campaign groups from across the town, including those who fought against aspects of the Darlington Football Stadium project, the demolition of the White Horse pub and the removal of Victorian features from the town's High Row, will be out in force.