Parents fear they are putting too much pressure on their daughters to reach their academic potential, the president of a girls' school body has said. Incoming Girls School Association head Jill Berry said parents were worried about achieving a balance between school achievement and happiness.  Mrs. Berry also said that girls could put themselves under a lot of pressure. A poll of 1000 parents surveyed for the association said their top concern was their daughter's education. Girls tend to outperform boys in all stages of their education, and this can lead schools to assume all girls will do well.  Mrs. Berry said, "There is no doubt that many mothers and fathers are worried about getting the balance right between their daughters realizing their academic potential while at the same time being happy and safe." Mrs. Berry said in her experience girls had very high expectations of themselves. "That's a positive thing and we want them to aim high. But sometimes we do find a girl is being unrealistic in her aspirations or putting herself under unreasonable pressure. It's not necessarily pushy parents--it can come from the girls themselves."  But parents, too, wanted support to get the balance right between caring and being involved in their children's lives and not being "helicopter parents", she added.  Women could be perfectionists and it was important to encourage girls to listen to their body, which could give warning signs of too much stress, she added. "Bright motivated high achieving girls with high expectations of themselves are more susceptible   to eating disorders," Mrs. Berry said, "But girls' schools are usually very good at dealing with these things."  It was a teacher's job to help girls "to have it all", but to help them deal with inevitable   disappointments as well, she said. Parents are worried that their daughters  _  .
can't put themselves under pressure can't live a stressful life can't achieve a balance between school work and happiness fall behind boys at school