Children as young as four were told their lessons were not good enough

They wrote to pupils at Amesbury Infants School in Wiltshire in language which was inappropriate, a school governor told Teachers' TV News.

A teaching union said the letter undermined respect for teachers.

Ofsted said writing to pupils with the outcome of their school inspection was a new service, and the letter was "in a language the pupils could understand".

Lessons 'don't work'

Amesbury was judged to be failing when it was inspected in October last year.

Afterwards, pupils were sent a letter which said: "We have told your teachers they must try harder".

It also told children "some lessons don't work" and were "too easy".

In a response to Teachers' TV News, Ofsted defended the new policy of writing to children directly.

A spokesperson said the letter was written "to take into account the age of the pupils", and "in language they can understand based on the inspection report".

Parts of the letter are also said to praise the atmosphere in the playground and commend the help that older children offer younger pupils.

Ofsted said pupils were not achieving well enough but initiatives at the school were leading to improvements.

Teacher-pupil relationship

But the school's governing body said in a statement that they were "not entirely happy with the negative parts of the message of the letter sent to our four-to-seven-year-old pupils".

Deirdre Buckley, LEA governor to the school, said, "I felt Ofsted used very damning language - the fact they said the teachers must try harder is really inappropriate."

National Union of Teachers leader John Bangs said the letter demonstrated that Ofsted inspectors "do not really understand the relationship between teachers and pupils".

"That absolutely at core is teachers being able to achieve respect. And the consequence of that is that any letter which undermines the respect pupils should feel for teachers is wrong."

The Liberal Democrat education spokesman, Ed Davey, said: "I think maybe Ofsted need to look carefully at the guidance they give to inspectors when they write these types of letters."

The framework for Ofsted inspections was changed from September 2005, making inspections shorter, giving schools less notice of a visit, and relying on school self-evaluation.