A primary school headteacher has demanded that “highly critical” parents who consider themselves to be “educational experts” should retrain as teachers.

Colin Dowland, the headteacher at Woodridge Primary School in North Finchley, has accused some parents of taking advantage of the remote learning tools by sending critical messages to teachers on how to do their jobs.

While children are told to stay at home and continue their education online during the lockdown, parents have been able to overlook the work of pupils and have been hijacking the online tools to criticise teachers.

“Parents now have the facility to message teachers directly via our online platforms, to watch teachers teaching their pre-recorded lessons and to comment in real time on live sessions. I hope you have found this unprecedented access to teachers helpful,” the headteacher said.

Speaking on those being critical, he said: “However, a number of parents have taken advantage of this new access to send highly critical messages of advice to teachers about how to do their jobs and questioning their training, skills and competence.

“Can I encourage all those particular parents, who now consider themselves to be educational experts, to sign up for teacher training at their earliest convenience, since there are never enough teachers and I suspect many will be leaving the profession after this year.”

The headteacher explained that due to restrictions, there will be “some gaps” in education and that teachers are trying their best to adapt to the new teaching environments.

Mr Dowland also said that many of the staff are parents and share the frustrations caused from the pandemic.

To those with supportive or constructive feedback, he said: “Thank you for all the supportive and helpful messages you have been sending to the staff via the learning platforms and to the office email. This sort of constructive and considered feedback is always welcome and it helps us to improve our offer as we go along.”