Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Today’s select committee session covered a lot of ground and the Secretary of State’s comments have raised a number of issues of interest to school leaders.

“Whilst we agree that schools should be politically neutral spaces, there is a need to allow debate to flourish, challenging topics to be discussed and for pupils to begin to form their own views free from the influence of government or other powerful voices and organisations.

“In the absence of exams this year, schools have worked incredibly hard to submit reliable and credible grades for their GCSE and A Level students. Yesterday we welcomed the Welsh Government’s announcement that a rebate of 50 per cent would be available from the exam boards in Wales, recognising the enormous input schools and colleges have had in awarding these grades. NAHT strongly urges the Westminster government to take note and follow suit.

“The news that exams for 2022 may be adjusted to take into account this year’s disruption will surprise no-one in the sector. The important thing now is that schools and colleges are given clear information from government about how many scenarios they should be planning for. The government cannot be allowed to sleep-walk into a third year of uncertainty and confusion.

“The government needs to step up its recovery plans for education. They cannot have failed to notice the very poor reception their plans received when they were revealed last month. The resignation of the government’s recovery commissioner should be of huge concern to ministers who must know that their plans lack the scope and ambition to truly tackle the scale of the recovery task that schools will be engaged in.

“Funding is a key part of this. As our recent poll of members showed, rather than dictating how education recovery happens, the government needs to give schools the flexible funding and resources to get on with the job in the way they know works best.

“NAHT’s Education Recovery Blueprint includes seven fundamental areas of work that ought to lead to a stronger and fairer education system for all. The government’s recovery plan just isn’t ambitious enough, frankly.”