Headteacher incredibly claims Harry Potter books could DAMAGE childrens’ BRAINS

A HEADTEACHER has urged children not to read fantasy books including Harry Potter and Game of Thrones because he claims they can DAMAGE their brains.

Graeme Whiting has come under fire after he issued the warning telling his pupils not to read the Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games and any Terry Pratchet books because they encourage “difficult behaviour”. 

Instead he has called for them to read classics by authors including Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley and Shakespeare. 

Mr Whiting, headmaster of the independent Acorn School in Nailsworth, Gloucester, said “deeply insensitive and addictive” material can cause mental illness. 

Writing on his blog, he said: "I want children to read literature that is conducive to their age and leave those mystical and frightening texts for when they can discern reality, and when they have first learned to love beauty.

“Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, and Terry Pratchett, to mention only a few of the modern world’s ‘must-haves’, contain deeply insensitive and addictive material which I am certain encourages difficult behaviour in children; yet they can be bought without a special licence, and can damage the sensitive subconscious brains of young children, many of whom may be added to the current statistics of mentally ill young children.

“For young adults, this literature, when it can be understood for what it is, is the choice of many!

“Buying sensational books is like feeding your child with spoons of added sugar, heaps of it, and when the child becomes addicted it will seek more and more, which if related to books, fills the bank vaults of those who write un-sensitive (sic) books for young children!”

JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books have sold more than 450million copies worldwide and have been made into films that made £4.7billion at the box office. 

However Mr Whiting said he stands for the “old fashioned values of traditional literature” rather than the modern “dark, demonic literature” could warp children’s subconscious minds. 

The headmaster also issued a warning to parents, adding: “It is the duty of parents to spend time to study such matters and form their own conclusions, not to think that because the world is filled with such sensational literature they have to have it for their children, because everyone else does!

“Beware the devil in the text! Choose beauty for your young children!”

Mr Whiting founded the Acorn School, where children do not wear uniforms or take state exams, in 1991. 

It was rated as “outstanding” in its most recent Ofsted visit.