Children who sit down to dinner with their parents every night get better grades at school than those who never eat meals as a family.

A study of more than 20,000 pupils found strong links between how well children get on with their parents and their success at school.

Pupils also tend to achieve better GCSE results if their parents regularly set a curfew on a school night, the government-backed study found.

The findings suggested that such “togetherness” is an important factor in how well children do at school.

“There is a strong relationship between regularity of having a family evening meal and GCSE attainment.

“Half of those who nearly always have a family evening meal attained eight or more good GCSEs, compared to less than a third of those who seldom do,” said the report.

Family rules on whether children were allowed out on school nights were also important indicators of pupils’ academic success.

One in ten children whose parents “sometimes” or “never” set week-night curfews dropped out of education, training and work completely after the age of 16. “The majority of parents know where their children are in the evening and these children tend to have better later outcomes,” the study said.

The report, published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, found teenagers were more likely to drop out of school at 16 if they got on badly with their parents.

The study said: “Rates of remaining in full-time education are 20 per cent higher for those whose parents reported getting on either fairly well or very well with their child.”

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