UK news This article is more than 22 years oldSixth formers' topless calendar criticised
This article is more than 22 years oldA calendar featuring photographs of secondary school pupils striking seductive poses was last night condemned by children's charities who warned that it risked portraying teenagers as "sex objects".
The glossy creation, entitled Sexey's Hot Twelve, was produced by sixth-form pupils at Sexey's School in Bruton, Somerset, as part of a Young Enterprise business project and sells at £5 a copy.
It includes one photograph of a topless 16-year-old girl who is gazing into the camera and holding her arms across her chest. In another, a girl wearing a sleeveless black dress is draped across two white cushions.
Staff at the state boarding school are understood to have given prior approval to the project, and all the pupils had to seek parental consent before getting involved.
The unusual enterprise failed to impress Chris Hollis, regional director of Childline, who described it as an "ill-considered" product which could send out the wrong message.
"The photographs are provocative and seductive to put it mildly. Our concern would be that it is presenting individual children in the photographs, and young people as a whole, as sex objects.
"These are older younger people, not pre-pubescent children usually favoured by paedophiles. But it could give out the wrong message to adults who are oriented towards forming adult relationships with young people.
"They could see this sort of thing as a way to excuse their behaviour and make it okay."
The NSPCC also criticised the venture, describing it as as "inadvisable, irresponsible and ill-judged". A spokeswoman said: "It could attract unwelcome attention and potentially put young people in a vulnerable position. We think it is inappropriate for a school to publish this kind of material."
Defending the decision to press ahead with the wall calendar, the headteacher, Steve Burgoyne, emphasised that it had been an internal venture, photographed and prepared by students, and had been very successful.
In a statement he said: "As it was never the intention to reach a wider public, we would rather not become involved in any further in press publicity, which we have not sought."
It is understood that the group of enterprising students sold all 500 copies of their calendar and received nothing but positive feedback from other pupils and their parents.
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