“If children come from difficult homes, the school already knows. It doesn’t take something like this, and it is not the job of school inspectors.”

About 120,000 ­pupils have already completed the Ofsted survey, which is being used to compile a database on children’s lifestyle, health and happiness.

Pupils, who do not need their parents’ permission before taking part, are asked a series of personal questions such as whether they smoke and drink alcohol.

Additional questions include: “Does the mum or step mum that you live with have a paid job?”, “How many people live in your house?” and “How many rooms does your home have?”

Parents fear the scheme will be rolled out nationally unless there is a concerted campaign to have it scrapped.
Others wonder if the questions are intended to trap people who make ends meet by taking in lodgers, or to help councils calculate the new community charge bands.

A 10-year-old pupil at one London primary school left the room in tears after being told to fill in the online questionnaire.

The boy’s classmates were asked about their ethnic backgrounds, with choices which included “gypsy” and “Irish traveller”.

One mother, who asked not to be named, said her daughter had come home terrified that she had not answered the questions correctly.

 She said: “She didn’t understand what she had been asked to do. She didn’t understand what a gypsy was, and since she has never smoked in her life, wondered why she was being asked something like that.

“I wasn’t told that the questionnaire was going to be part of the Ofsted inspection and the children were just confused.
“Some children of divorced parents were asked if they lived in a house with both their parents and didn’t know how to answer. It was terribly unfair on such young, vulnerable children.”

Another mother said: “My son was very agitated when he told me about it. He hadn’t really understood some of the questions and was unsure on many of them how to answer.

“I reassured him that there was nothing he could have said that would get him into any trouble but he is still talking about it to me several weeks after he took the quiz.

“He was being asked to make judgments on things that he had never thought about before. That’s what got him rattled, I think.

“We drink wine at home and my son is given a tiny glass on special occasions – really just a thimbleful diluted with water – but he loves it and feels really grown up.

“He said this on the form and now thinks he will have got me into trouble when he was asked if he was ever given more than a sip of an alcoholic drink.”

Pupils are also asked to “agree or disagree” with the statement that “parents and family look out for me”.

Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: “This is Orwellian – plain and simple spying on people.

“Children should not be asked ­questions like this, let alone asked to give their postcodes so they can be identified.

“This will cause all sorts of misery and there is a danger that parents will end up in trouble with the authorities for something they haven’t done when their child gives his or her answers.”

An Ofsted spokesman insisted that the questionnaire was confidential and participants would not be identified.

He said: “The postcodes will not be made available outside Ofsted and will be used for analysis purposes only.”

Ministers and advisers from the European Parliament are handing out pro-EU literature in schools. The Europa Diary explains the parliament’s position on issues including climate change, solar power and fair trade. UK Independence Party MEP Derek Clark said the move was tantamount to brainwashing youngsters.

He said: “This glossy booklet is selling the EU and to do so by infiltrating schools is appalling.”