Teachers should be careful to avoid delivering lessons on anorexia and self-harm that act as little more than a set of how-to ­instructions for vulnerable young people, new guidance warns schools. 

Children as young as 5 should also be taught the importance of not keeping adults’ secrets, and learn about the ways in which people’s bodies can be hurt.

The government-funded guidance for teachers offers advice on the best ways to teach and promote good mental health and emotional well-being in pupils, amid concerns of growing problems among young people. 

The guidelines recommend that teachers do not discuss ­eating disorders until key stage 3 and self-harm until key stage 4 - and it offers careful instructions on how to introduce the subjects.

Jenny Barksfield of the PSHE Association, which drew up the document, said: “With the very best ­intentions in the world, they have the idea that, if you shock pupils, you will put them off doing something,” she said. “That isn’t true.”

A report published earlier this year criticises the lack of ­action taken by the government to develop PSHE since ­Ofsted’s 2013 verdict that the subject required improvement in 40 per cent of schools. “The government’s strategy for ­improving PSHE is weak,” it states. 

Despite the new guidance, Ms Barksfield pointed out that the subject itself remained optional. “Whatever we produce, it’s still a non-statutory subject,” she said. 

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