GIRLS are responsible for a worrying surge in violent, bullying and disruptive behaviour in York schools.

Education chiefs have revealed how the number of girls being excluded has soared, while the proportion removed from mainstream teaching has doubled.

Senior council members want officers to look at new ways of recording female bullying and disruption.

They said girls often misbehaved more subtly and were harder to manage by established methods aimed at aggressive male behaviour.

Speaking at a meeting last night, Coun David Livesley said: "Perhaps they are not being as sweet - as sugar and spice - as they were before."

City of York Council figures show that 120 girls (32 per cent) and 252 boys (68 per cent) were excluded from schools in 2003. The previous year, only 25 per cent of all exclusions were girls.

The number of girls on the behavioural support service register, which offers tuition outside mainstream education, has more than doubled from 26 in 2003 to 56 in 2004.

Murray Rose, assistant director of education, told education leaders that more girls were "failing" in the education system than before.

He said: "It may be that some systems we have had may have focused on the aggressive, challenging behaviour associated with boys.

"What we are finding now is recognition that there are more girls who have caused disturbances in the system."

Carol Runciman, executive member for education, said: "We have to find the techniques for staff to deal with it. Boys overtly bully, girls do it more subtly. We have to look at how to deal with that. It's something I'm going to watch with interest."

Mr Rose said that permanent exclusions from York schools were among the lowest in the country, and that there were only a "small but significant" number of problem children.

Updated: 10:40 Wednesday, June 16, 2004