Headteacher sparks debate after urging working mothers to help more with school PTAs

21 November 2019, 15:29 | Updated: 21 November 2019, 15:35

Miss Hincks, president of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA), said there has been a decline in PTA interaction.

A headteacher has urged working mothers to do more to help with their kids' school PTAs, arguing that parents are less 'community minded' than they once were.

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Sue Hincks, who is president of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA), has said that she has watched PTA numbers dwindle over the years - and claimed that, while she celebrates the fact more women are breadwinners these days, it also means that they have less time to volunteer with school.

Speaking to the Telegraph, she said: "I don’t mean to criticise parents.

"We are all working so hard. But there is a question about how we manage our resources and our time.

“There are lots of things people used to do outside the home – Women’s Institutes, Brownies, Scouts - and now we do much less," she added.

"It’s the voluntary stuff that was very important, maybe 30 years ago. We are becoming much more atomised and less community orientated.”

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She added that within the GSA, which consists of some of the country's leading girls' independent schools, it is usually the mothers, rather than fathers, who assist with the PTA.

Mrs Hincks spoke to headteachers recently at a conference in Bristol, saying: “How many of you have parents too busy to join your Parents’ Association?

“Or, in day schools, how many of you experience a demand for care between 7am and up to 7pm because those are the times between which adults need to work or be en route to and from work?

 “Or, in nurseries which you run, who has had a request for Saturday and even Sunday opening because parents need that time for work or domestic chores?”

However, not everyone has agreed with Mrs Hincks - and some took to Twitter to voice their criticism of her words.

One wrote: "Fathers! Your time has finally come! You too can and should share in parenting by engaging w/ the PTA and extra curricular activities!

"Most dads are decent men, I wish schools would reach out to them more instead of making this a women's only thing".

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