Pushy parents should leave their children alone during school holidays so that they can develop resilience and independence, the headmaster at one of Britain’s leading preparatory schools has said.

Rather than forcing youngsters into “tightly controlled schedules” full of CV-building activities such as musical instrument lessons, parents should let their children to entertain themselves.

Fred de Falbe, headmaster of the £23,000-a-year Beeston Hall School in Norfolk, said that it would be far better for a child's personal development to allow them to become bored, so that they can then find creative ways to occupy their time.

Writing in the summer edition of Attain magazine, he said: "Practising the violin swells the heart of every ambitious parent, but doodling with a diabolo or yoyo, seeing if you can make a glass sing with your index finger or if you can raise a single eyebrow are not yet – as far as I know – skills that are proudly added to the CV.”