|TOP|The Catholic Church in Scotland has spoken out against a call from government advisers to launch a buddy scheme to protect “gay” primary school children from bullies.

The Times reports that the government advisers also called for schools to teach anti-homophobia classes in a report that has met with criticism from religious leaders, educationalists and politicians.

According to the report conducted by Edinburgh University’s Centre for Education for Racial Equality and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Youth Scotland, children as young as primary seven age have described themselves as gay.

According to the researchers behind the internet survey, two primary seven year old pupils described themselves as gay while another was “unsure”. A further eight children aged between 12 and 14 described themselves as “gay, lesbian, bisexual or questioning”.

|AD|The Catholic Church in Scotland has criticised the report’s call for “buddy” schemes to protect vulnerable primary and secondary school pupils and also wants to see the introduction of anti-homophobia classes to prevent the bullying of gay pupils.

“Buddy schemes are an approach that has been very, very successful in the States but there has been very little of them so far in the UK,” said Sarah Aboud, LGBT Youth Scotland’s development manager. “The idea is to create safe spaces for young people which is really crucial.

The “buddies” would be specially trained to listen to the problems of gay pupils and report the bullies to teachers.

“It’s about young people coming together regardless of their sexual orientation.”

The Catholic Church in Scotland described the proposals as “totally nonsensical and dangerously cynical” and was among numerous critics angry at what they see as an unnecessary sexualisation of primary school children.

“This is a sinister attempt to sexualise a generation of Scottish children,” said a spokesman.

“Children routinely engage in robust name-calling, using insults they don’t even understand. The idea that this is a concerted campaign to disadvantage one group of children is laughable.”

Victor Topping, of the NASUWT teaching union, dismissed the recommendations as “an over-reaction”.

“How would a 12-year-old know that he or she is gay?” he said. “They haven’t experienced life, they haven’t experienced relationships with the opposite sex. There is no need to teach children in primary school about homosexuality.”