Debate at schools is being shut down by a “worrying trend towards an intolerance of different opinions", the Ofsted chief has warned.

Amanda Spielman says that the rise of “single issue groups” including vegan campaigners and anti-LGBT education protesters has meant that a “simplistic, polarising” narrative has formed, “in which the world’s problems have a single, neat solution; where scapegoats abound and critics are seen as the enemy - to be discredited, discounted or disowned.”

She added that the current political discourse has made the job of schools “much harder.”

Speaking at The Festival of Education at Wellington College, Ms Spielman criticised the parents who tried to block schools teaching children about the existence of LGBT relationships.

In April, several primary schools in Birmingham suspended Relationship and Sex Education classes following protests and petitions from Muslim parents.