Top school staff are being reminded it's their legal obligation to report suspicious behaviour from teachers.

It follows figures released to Newstalk ZB under the Official Information Act, showing 22 people were struck off the teachers registry last year, seven over sexual misconduct.

Eight were for non-contact sexual behaviour, one was for aggressive behaviour and physical handling, and the others for fraud, dishonesty, or other relationship and employment matters.

Principals Federation president Whetu Cormick told Mike Hosking it's a disappointing number, but it's a good sign the system is working.

LISTEN ABOVE AS WHETU CORMICK SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING

"I think the Education Council has a very good reporting system to enable these matters to be brought before them."

Cormick said there are tight rules around reporting inappropriate teachers.

"The Education Act clearly says that principals, myself included, and trustees need to report this information on to the Teachers Council so that they can discipline these individuals."

School Trustees Association president Lorraine Kerr told Rachel Smalley she believes the appropriate checks and balances are in place, as long as schools stick to them.

"We just have to keep being rigorous about our processes, and we have to have an unrelenting focus on our processes," she said.

• New classroom appropriation guidelines to avoid teacher misconduct

The Education Council is working on a new Code of Professional Responsibility for teachers, due out in July. It updates the Council’s current code of ethics.

Manager of teacher practice Andrew Greig said there are good processes in place to ensure such behaviour is dealt with.

"Where there are concerns principals, employers at early childcare centres, they do report that to us and as soon as they report that to us we carry out an investigation."

Greig said this behaviour isn't common in the profession.

"We are disappointed that there are some teachers that have been struck off for that sort of behaviour but we need to look at in the context of it. In the context of 100,000 teachers it's a very very tiny percentage."

Greig said the new code will go some way towards stamping that sort of behaviour out completely "to ensure that the 100,000 teachers in New Zealand are very professional and also acting appropriately in front of our students."