Private school parents
high on the wish list. Parents and students make it very clear to us that they expect the grades they paid for, and that means that we have to do extra revision sessions at lunchtimes, after school and even in the holidays.”
Bousted said that the demographic of privately educated children was changing, with international students now making up a sizeable proportion of independent schools.
Parents who lived overseas and had sent their children to Britain for schooling tended to have particularly ‘high expectations’ for academic success, she added. Bousted explained that parents overlooked the fact that this approach may do their children more harm than good.
“There are important life lessons to be learned, one of which is if you don’t do the time you won’t get the results,” she said.
“No one can get that result for you, you have to work for it yourself.”
Bousted said that teachers were working ‘insane hours’ at the behest of parents, which made their lives ‘extremely dif¿cult’.