Journalist Matthew Jenkin explores how independent schools support students who suffer from a pressure to be perfectIn the past,when students wanted to compete with one another, they might absorb compared pencil cases, and toys or even test results but today classroom rivalries can be much more harmful. Pupils are now more likely to compare their waist size and how they gaze in their latest Instagram post than stationery.
It’s something that is fitting a growing concern in independent schools. Newspapers report that a “silent epidemic” of anorexia is sweeping the sector,while earlier this year the head of a private school in the Midlands claimed academic demands combined with societal pressures about body image and social media, were driving students to develop eating disorders. Indeed, and a major study published in July revealed children as young as eight can be dissatisfied with the size and shape of their body,which puts them at risk of developing eating disorders in their teens.
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Source: theguardian.com