KINGSDOWN School headteacher Wendy Conaghan has said she will continue to appoint the best candidate for the job despite the head of Ofsted rooting for positive discrimination.

The head of the education watchdog, Sir Michael Wilshaw, said earlier this week that heads should consider using positive discrimination when faced with equal candidates for a role in order to reflect the ethnic diversity of their pupils.

Discrimination of any kind, including positive discrimination, is illegal under equality legislation.

Sir Michael told LBC Radio: “Every headteacher I have ever met wants the best person, best qualified person, best communicator in front of children and will put that as the first priority in appointing staff.

“I have always worked in inner-city environments with youngsters from different ethnic backgrounds and always felt it was important to try and get a staff mix in that sort of environment.

“If I had two people applying for a job of equal merit and I felt we needed to increase the number of teachers from ethnic minority backgrounds to the staff then I would apply positive discrimination – as long as the two people were of equal merit.”

But Wendy Conaghan, headteacher at Kingsdown School, said that it was important to always choose the most suitable person for each role.

She said: “I have always appointed the best candidate for the post rather than discriminate in any way. This will continue.”

Meanwhile, the Department for Education has reminded school leaders they must abide by equality legislation when appointing new staff members.

However, it did say that like every other employer schools can take positive action to address the under-representation of any particular group.

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, positive action means they can encourage people from under-represented groups to apply for roles.

It can also be used in tie-break decisions, when heads are faced with a choice between two candidates equally qualified for the role.

The latest census of school staff in England showed that 93 per cent of teachers were white.