Ofsted has begun 40 no notice school inspections in the wake of the alleged ‘Trojan Horse’ extremism scandal.

Chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw last night instructed regional directors to review school performance across every region of England during the remaining two weeks of September.

Calls were raised for no warning inspections following an alleged takeover plot by extreme Muslims in a number of Birmingham schools. Sir Michael has vowed to examine the feasibility of moving to the system, revising current rules allowing a half-day notice period for the majority of schools.

While many schools set for review in the coming fortnight were already due for inspection, others have been selected thanks to concerns regarding rapidly declining standards, safeguarding issues, leadership standards or the breadth of curriculum.

Unannounced inspections will be carried out throughout this academic year, with the first wave this month being used to make ‘an early assessment of their impact’.

'Parents rightly expect Ofsted inspections to get to the heart of any problems that may exist in a school,’ Sir Michael said.

‘That’s why we’ve expanded the criteria for conducting unannounced inspections for the coming year.’

‘I’m currently giving thought to whether Ofsted should move to more routine no notice inspections as part of our wider education inspection reforms, which we will be consulting on later this year.

‘In the meantime, under our regional structure, inspectors are well placed to use their local knowledge and contacts to identify where these sorts of problems may be taking hold so we can respond swiftly and report publically on what we find,’ Sir Michael added.