TEACHERS have called for action after being subjected to a tirade of abuse by cyber-bullying pupils.

Children are logging on to web forums and leaving damning messages about teachers for their parents and fellow pupils to view.

Union representatives in the Bolton area say the sites are undermining teachers' efforts.

Pupils from nearly every Bolton secondary school have submitted teachers' names to website RateMyTeachers.co.uk They give staff a score out of five in four categories: Easiness, helpfulness, clarity and popularity, and leave accompanying messages.

One science teacher at a Bolton school was branded "loud, annoying, self-centred", while an English teacher was labelled "lazy and sloppy".

One message reads: "The most boring teacher ever known to man, thanks to a lack of effort and unwillingness to show any interest in the subject and because he doesn't mark the books right."

Another accuses a maths teacher of losing coursework. It reads: "Whatever happened to our coursework sir? Lost it all did you. Misplaced it in your cupboard more like."

There is also a parents' section to allow adults to leave ratings.

Walkden High School is among local schools taking action, and has been named on the website's "Wall of Shame" as having banned access to the site from its IT network.

RateMyTeachers.co.uk is one of a number of sites unions say are being used to bully teachers.

Video streams of teachers losing their temper with trouble-making pupils have been posted on media-sharing sites such as YouTube and Bebo.

In one instance, a pupil at a Greater Manchester school is said to have secretly filmed a woman teacher's breasts. Moving images of children bullying each other have also been posted.

Karen Hopwood, local representative for the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) said: "This needs to be brought into line. These sites are undermining and distressing for teachers and send out the wrong message to parents.

"Unfortunately, many of them are American so we have no control over them."

At the NASUWT conference earlier this week, Education Secretary Alan Johnson called for an end to "cruel and relentless" cyber-bullying and called on websites to take firmer action to block offensive school videos.