Head attacks 'lying parents'

Girls are not given values at home, says head

Parents are lying to schools and encouraging their children to do the same, the head teacher of a private girls' school has said.

They risk creating a generation which does not know right from wrong, said Mary Steel, head teacher of St Mary and St Anne in Staffordshire.

She said some parents lied about children's homework or the reasons why they missed school.

"Many parents never seem to consider whether something is right or wrong.

"They have no value system to use as a yardstick to measure their actions," she told the annual conference of the Girls' Schools Association.

Helicopter

Most parents were honest and supportive, she said, but others lied about family events to get their children out of attending school events such as speech day.

"Parents ask if it is necessary for their daughter to attend speech day because she is not getting a prize.

"The suggestion that she might want to be there to support others is met by puzzled silence."

Mrs Steel also told delegates there was a growing number of children who although they had been given a lot of material goods, had suffered through having little time with their parents.

"I had one father who asked me if he could drop his children off at school by helicopter.

"Clearly there was no lack of material things, but his three daughters never had a story read to them until they started at our school as boarders."