PA
It has been claimed that badly behaved and disruptive pupils have been PAID to stay away from school when Ofsted inspectors are visiting.
A Times Education Supplement survey claims this is just one of many tactics used by schools to create a good impression when inspectors come calling.
Others include 'borrowing' exceptional artwork from other schools to pass off as their students' own, and telling their weakest teaching staff to go sick and temporarily replacing them with outstanding staff from other schools.
It is reported that one deputy head, terrified of what inspectors might make of his most challenging pupils, PAID the children not to be there. A teacher claimed that he was shown an 'inch-thick wad of twenty pounds notes' by the teacher, and later learned he had given children 'up to £100 or so not to attend school that day.' The teacher said: "It seemed he [the deputy] had, in total, paid the equivalent of a whole class to truant for the day."
Are you horrified by this?
Or can you understand why teachers find themselves desperate to create a good impression?