Fortunately the new short courses in religious education offer an opportunity to do all this. The course I taught included a unit on marriage and sexual relations. This required me to teach chastity and the place of ex within marriage as part of understanding Christian teaching.

I found that my Year 11 pupils listened rather better than I expected. It seemed to me that they were fed up with a diet of free and easy sex and were ready to hear the very different message that Christian faith offered them.

Penny Thompson 14 Chestnut Avenue Crosby, Liverpool