Thousands of criminals including murderers, paedophiles and heroin dealers seek work in British schools
Two people who applied to work in classrooms had been convicted of murder, three for attempted murder and one for soliciting to murder
More than 16,000 people with criminal convictions have applied to work as teachers, teaching assistants and even heads in the past three years, despite racking up more than 44,000 offences between them.
Criminal record checks reveal the applicants had 22 child sex offence convictions, including two for gross indecency with a girl under 16 and 12 for indecent assault on children.
Another six had made indecent pictures of children, according to data obtained by education newspaper Schools Week.
Two applicants had been convicted of murder, three for attempted murder and one for soliciting to murder.
The figures, which were uncovered by a Freedom of Information request, showed more than 300 had drug-dealing convictions - 30 of them for peddling heroin.
Three were for kidnapping, 28 for indecent assaults on women and another 70 related to arson.
Some 228 convictions were for loitering or soliciting to use a prostitute. Others included exposure, blackmail and robbery.
The most convictions - 5,815 - were for drink-driving, while 3,537 were for shoplifting.
It is unknown how many of the applicants are working in schools because it is up to individual heads whether to give them a job. But working with children requires a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, formerly known as a CRB check.
It is against the law to appoint anyone on a list of people barred from working with children.
Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said: 'It's astonishing there are so many. Thank goodness for DBS checks, otherwise very serious offenders might be let loose on our children.
'These findings show the importance of the checks in keeping out people who want to be around children for the wrong reasons.
'It may be that some of these people feel they have put their crimes behind them.
'But I think schools are about things beyond teaching maths, English and science - they're about developing character.
'Even if the offence committed was theft, it would still raise question marks about whether they are the right kind of person to be setting an example.'
Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'Schools are rigorous in carrying out pre-employment checks. Practice in this area is extremely closely inspected by Ofsted.
'The majority of checks are clear. However, occasionally applicants have a conviction in their past for a relatively minor offence which was clearly an aberration. In such cases schools may still decide to employ them if they are certain there is no risk attached to this.'
Schools Week obtained the figures from the DBS, which holds data on those unsuitable to work with children.
The newspaper asked for the total number of people who applied for positions between April 1 2012 and March 31 2015, and the criminal convictions that showed up.
The roles applied for included head and deputy posts, teachers and teaching assistants. The list of convictions did not include the date of the offence.
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