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Children aged five to get sex education

Children as young as five will be given sex education under Government plans to cut teenage pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases

Pupils will get basic classes in identifying body parts in the first few years of primary school. In later years, they will be required to have more structured lessons about reproduction and relationships, a major review will recommend.

At secondary level, schools should improve the way issues such as civil partnerships and the importance of marriage are covered. Teachers will also be given training in delivering lessons amid fears too many are embarrassed to discuss sex in the classroom.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, who has led the review, insisted exposure to sex education before puberty reduced teenage pregnancy rates. "It is important that we as a society allow better sex and relationship education in both primary and secondary schools without sexualising young people too early," he said. "It is right to share the responsibility between home and school."

At present, all primary and secondary pupils have to learn about the biology of reproduction in science. In primary schools, pupils should learn about how animals and humans reproduce, but can limit lessons to the biology curriculum.

New-style lessons on drugs and alcohol lessons will also be overhauled. Primary school pupils will be given warnings on avoiding medicines and prescription drugs left in the home - as well recognising the difference between soft drinks and alcohol.

Geraldine Smith, the Labour MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, told the Telegraph: "To start sex education at primary school is to rob young children of their innocence. I know children seem to grow up faster these days but to start formally teaching them about sex education would be quite wrong and would encourage under-age sex. Being exposed to this sort of thing at such an age would put an awful lot of pressure on very young children."

Read the full story in the Telegraph Online