David Cameron called on schools to adopt the Tiger Mum mentality and instill the virtue of hard work into their pupils on Monday

David Cameron yesterday called on schools to adopt the ethos of so-called Tiger Mums and instill the virtue of hard work into their pupils.

The Prime Minister demanded an end to the ‘all must have prizes’ culture, which he said was holding back disadvantaged children.

And he said the Tiger Mothers’ ‘battle hymn’ of ‘work, try hard, believe you can succeed, get up and try again’ – practised in elite schools – should be spread around the education system.

Mr Cameron also attacked the ‘utterly wrong thinking’ of a teachers’ union leader who said children did not need to learn their times tables because they can use a calculator app on their phones.

He made the comments in a major speech in which he pledged an ‘all-out assault on poverty’ with a sweeping package of social reforms including measures to improve mental health services and flatten ‘sink estates’.

And he controversially called for the middle classes to sign up to state-funded parenting sessions on behaviour, communication and discipline.

Tiger Mothers originated in China, where strict and demanding mothers push their children to high levels of achievement.

Cameron called for middle class families to sign up to state-funded parenting sessions on behaviour, communication and discipline, which has been called a controversial move

Mr Cameron said children from poorer backgrounds cannot succeed unless their parents and teachers have high expectations of them.

Children thrive on high expectations: it is how they grow in school and beyond. For too long this has been the preserve of the most elite schools. I want to spread this to everyone. David Cameron

‘Character – persistence – is core to success,’ he told an audience in Islington, North London. ‘No matter how clever you are, if you do not believe in continued hard work and concentration, and if you do not believe that you can return from failure, you will not fulfil your potential.

‘It is what the Tiger Mothers’ battle hymn is all about: work, try hard, believe you can succeed, get up and try again.

‘It is, if you like, the precise opposite of an “all must have prizes” culture that permeated our schools under the last government.’

He added: ‘Children thrive on high expectations: it is how they grow in school and beyond. For too long this has been the preserve of the most elite schools. I want to spread this to everyone.’

Mr Cameron has also opened himself up to accusations of ‘nanny statism’ as he encouraged all parents to attend state-funded classes in how to bring up their children.

He used his speech to call for families to attend parenting classes to learn how to discipline their offspring, instill good behaviour and communicate with them.

The sessions, he said, were for the middle classes as well as the disadvantaged – admitting he had himself ‘struggled’ with some aspects of parenting.

The PM meets parents and their children at a prenatal class run by the charity, Family Action, in north London

The Prime Minister said that there would be more of a focus on sport, which he claimed was ‘associated with high academic achievement’.

Mr Cameron also attacked Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, who last week criticised Government proposals to examine every 11-year-old in multiplication skills.

She said: ‘Looking up your times tables is very easy to do. We have to make sure that children and young people use the computing ability on their mobile phones so they can get that at their fingertips.’