James Bowen, director of policy at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “We are concerned about the impact on the wellbeing of school leaders and their staff if they receive notification on a Friday of an inspection for the following Monday.

“School leaders will now be facing losing a weekend preparing for inspections next week, causing unnecessary stress and additional workload for staff.

“NAHT believes it would be far better to simply suspend inspections during weeks where industrial action is taking place.”