`Parents can be wrong' ( head.

One of the country's top headteachers has accused bullying parents of damaging children and undermining attempts by teachers to instill a sense of responsibility in pupils.

Tony Little, headteacher at Eton School, warned that there was real danger in the prevailing culture of "supermarket choice" that was coming to define the relationship between parents and schools.

He said parents sometimes lost sight of the fact that individuals have responsibilities as well as rights. He told the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools conference in Torquay that children needed guidance and to understand the importance of diversity and personal responsibility. He said: "While they may pay lip- service to them, by no means do all parents subscribe to these aims, nor exemplify them.

"The father aggressively urging a victory at all costs on the touchline, the mother bullying staff to change teaching arrangements, the parents wholly supportive of the school's disciplinary policy until it affects their child ( such parents hinder and even damage their children.

"We should always seek support of parents. We should always seek to explain to parents why a particular action is right, and this is frequently understood.

But we also know that parents are sometimes wrong, even about their own children, and we have a duty as experienced, professional people to stand up for our schools, its values and the child."