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“Helicopter parents” who micromanage their children’s lives risk putting them under intense pressure and creating a generation that is afraid to fail, a schools guide warned today.

Parents who “hover” over their children and timetable every moment of their day with extra lessons and after-school clubs should take a step back when they become teenagers.

Children who do not learn to deal with failure may not be able to cope with the knocks and defeats of adulthood, the Good Schools Guide’s latest newsletter to parents warns.

“If we drive our children to define themselves only by success, how will they deal with the inevitable setbacks that come with adulthood?” the guide asks. “Are we creating a generation who won’t have a go at something new for fear of failing?”

High-achieving all-girls’ schools, which many students sail through without facing any major disappointments, are beginning to encourage students to take more risks. Oxford High School for Girls plans to introduce a maths test next year for pupils aged 11 in which it is impossible to get 100 per cent in a bid to stop pupils becoming obsessed with being “little Miss Perfect”.

Wimbledon High School, part of the Girls’ Day School Trust, introduced a “failure week” to teach girls that they will not always win in life, and to give them the skills to cope with defeat.

It held assemblies discussing the merits of failing, with teachers and parents speaking about their greatest disasters and what they learned from them. Headmistress Heather Hanbury said: “My message is that it is better to lead a life replete with disappointment than one where you constantly wonder ‘if only’. For high-achieving girls especially, where fear of failure can be crippling, this is vitally important.”

The Good Schools Guide’s newsletter states: “Somewhere around year nine, just as children start to assert their own independence, attentive parenting can mutate into undue pressure. Parents are also strongly advised to step back and allow children to make their own subject choices at GCSE and beyond.

“And what happens once those top A-levels have been achieved? Students who were micro-managed often struggle with independent study at university.”

The guide also advised parents not to phone universities on behalf of their teenagers to find out about courses available through clearing.