The head of Chace community school, Enfield, north London, said:

“The Government emails us all the documents now, so I have to print it all out. It does seem like less paper, but it is not. It is my ink and paper.

It is costing me, not them. It really does annoy me.

“It comes from everywhere, particularly the local authority at this time of year.

“We also get a lot of requests to do research, from places such as the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, and if we accepted all the requests to look at how we do things, we would never have time to actually do them.

“Friday is pretty thin on paper but there is always a wedge of the stuff on Monday. It would be really helpful if there was a summary on the front so that we could go back to it when it was relevant.”

Ms Warrington said that, like most headteachers, she does not dare simply to ignore it.

“I wonder what would happen if we did stop reading it and said we are fine thank you, we do not need this. I am sure the world would still turn and children would still need teaching.”