A harder time for bad mums and dads?

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Head of Ofsted is calling for more power to be available to school headteachers to punish ‘bad parents’.

He recently gave an interview to the Times in which he suggested that parents who allow homework to slide, miss parents' evenings or fail to read with their children should be fined.

‘It's not about income or poverty,’ said Sir Michael, ‘where families believe in education they do well. If they love their children they should support them in schools.’

This is following on from the truancy penalty notices to parents which currently stand at £60, and charges for parents who remove their children during school term times for holidays.

Education Secretary Michael Gove also wants ‘stronger sanctions’ for parents who do not actively participate in their child's learning and for those who do not 'play their full part' in guaranteeing good behaviour.

Mumii asked ‘Sally’ - a Year Five teacher who asked to remain anonymous – whether she thought punishing parents would have any effect.

‘To be quite honest I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘There might be a relatively small group of well-meaning but disorganised parents who will pull their fingers out if you threaten them. But many of the parents that we find unsupportive aren’t likely to be bothered by the idea of our head fining them – if they don’t care enough to give their kids the support they need, or make sure they behave well when they come to school, they’re not going to take much notice of these sorts of threats'.

‘In many cases we’re dealing with people who are very good at playing the system, and who know full well that they can usually wriggle their way out of this sort of thing'.

‘Saying that, there are quite a few parents out there who do the bare minimum and would probably escape a fine, but who could do more, especially when it comes to reading with their kids. I’m talking about middle class mums and dads here, who often claim they’re too busy for this sort of thing'.

‘Too many of them are relying on the telly, phones and iPads to entertain their children. All these things are great in their way but there’s absolutely no substitute for spending just a few minutes every day reading together with your kids.’

With so many electronic devices and gadgets in our childrens’ lives, are we forgetting how important the little things, like a good old-fashioned nighttime story is?