Children as young as two should learn about same-sex relationships and transgender lifestyles at nursery, teachers have said.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) believe teaching toddlers “age-appropriate content” surrounding LGBT matters will reduce homophobia.
General secretary Kevin Courtney said children need “well-balanced, age-appropriate information”.
“The alternative is many pupils being isolated, bullied or misinformed and, for many, there is an impact on health and wellbeing that can last well beyond school years,” he said during the NUT’s 2017 annual conference in Cardiff.
Teachers voted in favour of a motion calling for the union to “campaign to ensure comprehensive age-appropriate content, including promotion of LGBT+ matters, for all schools from nursery throughout all phases of state education”.
In March 2017, Justine Greening announced compulsory relationships education would be introduced in schools from September 2019, as of yet there has been no detail released of what this will include.
However the NUT said the new measures should introduce a curriculum that is inclusive of LGBT+ issues.
Nurseries will not obliged to teach sex and relationships education, but this could see them introducing it voluntarily.