Parents and children will judge how happy a school makes its pupils and the results will count towards a new grading for schools.

Schools will be assessed on whether they promote healthy eating, discourage smoking, drinking and doing drugs. They should also promote sexual health, equality and fight discrimination.

Pupils must feel listened to and able to influence decisions in their school if a school is to be awarded the maximum marks.

Pupil wellbeing - assessed through parent and child surveys - will also be based on how well a school does at providing sport and healthy meals. Discipline and pupil attendance levels will also be taken into account.

Ofsted, the school inspectors, said the results of parent and child perception surveys will be used to grade schools from A-F in the new Report Card system announced by yesterday by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary.

“These surveys will also enable parents to provide information that will help us make decisions about when a school should be inspected,” Ofsted said.

Under the US-style Report Card system every school will be ranked on a number of measures and given a final overall grade for prospective parents to choose between schools.

Half of the measures will be based on pupil attainment at GCSE and A Level, the rest will include other indicators such as wellbeing.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said parent and student perceptions are the right way to judge pupil wellbeing. “Numerical indicators provide only a partial picture of student wellbeing and should not be used in the report card.”

Mary Bousted, chief executive of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, (ATL) said: “We remain deeply sceptical about school report cards, which would still be based on flawed data so continue to give a partial view of how well schools are meeting pupils’ needs.”

Times recommends

• Raise the bar for trainee teachers say MPs
• University crisis looms as applications leap
• Private schools plan to set up university