School chiefs moved pupils with special needs out of English and science lessons while Ofsted inspectors were observing lessons, says angry dad Martin Gillingham.

He said some parents of children with learning difficulties were asked to keep their youngsters away from Matravers School in Westbury altogether during the inspection on Thursday and Friday.

Mr Gillingham only found out one of his children, who has dyslexia, was moved out of key subjects like English and science and put into motor mechanics for the visit after speaking with his son.

The 46-year-old from Wyvern Walk, Westbury, claims a teacher at the school said it was to show off his ability in the subject to inspectors and also so he didn’t cause disruption in other classes.

However, Mr Gillingham claims another teacher said the decision to move his son was made a week in advance of the visit, and that his son was only told of the decision on the day of the Ofsted inspection.

“I’m furious,” said Mr Gillingham, who has two other children at the school.

“My son didn’t mind that he was moved classes as he does well in motor mechanics as to him that’s the easy subject, but obviously the other subjects like English are the ones he struggles in.

“Not only does this give a false impression to Ofsted but my main concern is that he is now missing out on lessons where he needs the extra teaching.

“The reason given to him by the school was that they didn’t want to risk that he along with all the others, another five in total, might cause disruption during the visit.

“Their reason is completely unfounded without any justification and purely based on an assumption.”

The ex-soldier, who served for 24 years in the Royal Military Police, has also spoken to other parents who were told their children shouldn’t go in to school altogether.

Mr Gillingham added: “I spoke to another parent whose son is autistic and she said she received a call from the school on Wednesday basically saying we think it would be better if he didn’t come in as they didn’t think her son would be able to cope with an inspector sat at the back of the room.

“They didn’t give her an option they were telling her not asking.

“She asked if that was allowed and was told it would be an authorised absence.”

Many parents took to Facebook to voice their frustrations about the school’s decision, with school governor and Wiltshire councillor Russell Hawker also commenting on the situation, posting: “It is sad that some misguided people have stirred a false and grossly misleading story.”

Later he told the Times that he had been in contact with a senior member of staff about the situation.

He said: “Two types of students have been involved in this, one of which was those who are very autistic children whose parents or carers were contacted by the school because of the Ofsted visit and because of the change in routine they would be kept at the Link Centre [a support unit for special needs children].

“The second group were children who had a history of being disruptive in class, that’s my understanding.

“I’m very sure that no staff would try to tell children to stay at home.

“There was a very small handful where some people with a track record of causing disruption were taken out of class because you don’t know what they are going to do.

“My belief is the school did what was in the best interest of the whole school and their objective is to get a good Ofsted report.”

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “When Ofsted visits a school, inspectors gather evidence about how well individual pupils and particular groups of pupils, such as those with special educational needs, are learning, gaining knowledge, and making progress.

“Ofsted cannot comment on individual complaints.”

The school issued a statement yesterday saying: 

Matravers School was visited by Ofsted on Thursday 5th February and Friday 6th February 2015 as part of the routine inspection of schools. 4 Inspectors visited the school alongside 2 additional inspectors who were training to become full inspectors. Throughout the 2 days the school was rigorously evaluated in all areas of its work and the results of this inspection will be published once released by Ofsted in due course. 

Matravers School is proud to be a fully inclusive school that successfully accommodates students with a wide variety of educational needs.

The school was alerted to some threads of negative comments on local social media sites concerning our support for students during the inspection. As a matter of policy Matravers School does not engage in discussions or comment on social media sites.

We encourage parents who have any concerns to contact the school so we can respond to their individual queries sensitively and constructively. We thank the vast majority of parents who have supported us through this period.  All of our students have represented the school with pride.