Parents hit out after being told to keep kids home during Ofsted visits

A Durham mam's tweet has lifted the lid on the practice of schools telling some parents to keep their kids off school during Ofsted visits.

Becky - that's not her real name, we've changed it to protect her, her son and the school's identity - tweeted her anger after being mistakenly asked to keep her son off school for three days during an upcoming visit by the schools inspector.

She told us:

"I won't demonise the school, it's not the school's fault - it is the fault of the accountability and inspection regime that puts schools into fear, plus the spending cuts that are causing schools to lose staff at a rapid rate.

"I've got to say, Ofsted were very on the ball - they contacted me immediately - but what I would say is that they condemn it; well what we need to do is look at what the wider problem is."

"Why are schools doing this? What is making senior leadership teams want to remove children?"

Hundreds of parents from across the country replied to the original tweet, saying things such as "it happens all the time, just disgraceful", "this happened to my child and is happening to others as well" and "it happened to my child 6 years ago and the fact it’s still happening shows that no lessons have been learnt."

In a statement, Ofsted said:

"This is an issue that we take seriously and this particular concern was picked up quickly and action taken. When parents bring up these kinds of issues at inspection we deal with them swiftly."