Prof Tanya Byron said some pupils at top schools in London experience so much expectation from schools and their parents to do well they have developed a fear of going to school.

Prof Byron said the cycle of constant exams and targets is leaving children “shattered by fear of failure,” and she says she is treating more young people for anorexia, depression and self harm than ever before.

I’m thinking about a lot of young women I see from private all-girls’ schools who are presenting with a number of anxiety disorders, such as anorexia, depression and self-harm,” Prof Byron, who was commissioned by the Government in 2007 to do a report on the impact of the focus on the digital on children, told the Ham and High newspaper.

“I see children who become school-phobics, the fear of failure becomes so intense they cannot cope with even going to school.”

She said the fear experienced by children is driven by parents and schools in a growing focus on targets and testing in education.She added: “I have a clinic in London where I see children who go to some of the best schools in the country and are shattered by a fear of failure which is driven by a desire for success and achievement [from parents and schools].

It is the endless sitting of exams which is soul-destroying.”

Prof Byron, who admits she is concerned about the focus of education policy at the moment, will speak at a special education conference on October 5th 2013.