Parents 'kept in the dark over sex abuse teachers'

A Channel 4 News investigation found Ofsted inspectors were routinely failing to mention instances where teaching staff had either been convicted or were awaiting trial for offences against pupils.

But the watchdog said individual cases of "inappropriate behaviour" were a matter for "the police and the relevant local children's services".

Channel 4 News looked at eight instances where Ofsted failed to highlight cases of sexual abuse.

At Headlands comprehensive in Bridlington, five members of staff were convicted over a five-year period. But there was no mention of the abuse in seven Ofsted reports in that time.

Police started investigating allegations made against a science teacher at the school in 2003.

The following year Ofsted inspectors reported child protection arrangements were "secure".

By 2008, three members of staff had been prosecuted for child sex offences.

Despite this, Ofsted's report in May of that year made no mention of the problem, adding that "procedures for the safeguarding of students meet national requirements".

Within months of that report, a female classroom assistant received a conditional discharge following a relationship with a pupil. Her replacement was later jailed for three years after embarking on an affair with a 15-year-old.

The mother of the girl said: "I think if they had been regularly reporting on safeguarding issues and had been honest about what had happened in the past, then things would have been better for my daughter and maybe it wouldn't have happened."

It was claimed there were also other examples of child sex offences being missed off reports by Ofsted inspectors.

Huddersfield Labour MP Barry Sheerman, who chaired the Commons schools select committee in the last parliament, told the programme he was "shocked" and "astonished" by the findings.