Northern mums told: Be as pushy as those in South

NORTHERN mothers should be as pushy as their Southern counterparts to ensure their children get top grades and earn places at the best universities, the children’s commissioner has said.

Anne Longfield said the ‘tiger’ parents of London and the South East were known for driving children on with additional homework and extra-curricular activities.

And while some disapproved of this sharp-elbowed approach, she said laid-back mothers should follow their example.

She added that more families in the North needed to harness ‘parent power’ by researching data about their local schools. Only then could they hold school leaders and governors to account and demand they did better for the community.

Miss Longfield, who has a son and lives in Leeds, told The Times: ‘As Northern parents, we need to be aware of these inconsistencies and variations in secondary schools and push hard for our schools to show how they are improving and helping our children to achieve.

‘One of the real drivers of improvements of schools in London has been the demand for good school results from parents and children. There is much we Northern parents can learn about this parent power.’

Pushy parents in the South have been criticised for spoiling the childhood of their sons and daughters by being too focused on exam results.

Data from the Sutton Trust thinktank has found children in the capital are pushed hardest. It said 42 per cent of London children had been tutored privately compared with 13 per cent in the North West and 16 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Research from the commissioner found that at primary level, children in the North did as well academically

‘A gap in attainment’

as counterparts in the South. However, once they got to secondary school, a gap in attainment opened.

Of the worst 20 local authorities for GCSEs, the majority were in the North. Children from poorer families fared particularly badly. Those on free school meals were almost half as likely to get five A-C grades as those on free meals in London.

In Southern areas 26 to 29 per cent of pupils gained the highest A-levels, while in the Midlands and North it was 22 to 24 per cent. The Great Pushy Parent Divide – Pages 24 &25