Children from Pilgrims Hatch were led out of a sex Education play at Brentwood Theatre halfway through because their head teacher thought it was too explicit.

The children were attending a performance of We Don't Talk About It, an English translation of a German play.

But just before the interval the head teacher of Pilgrims Hatch Primary School, Hugh Godfrey, took his group of eight and nine-year-olds out.

Mr Godfrey said: "I took the course of action which I felt was best for my students.

''We felt the content of the play was not suitable for the age group we had been requested to bring along."

Other schools, with slightly older pupils, did attend the pilot performance of the play, at the theatre in Shenfield Road last Thursday. They gave a very positive reaction.

Jeff Merrifield, who together with Ken Campbell translated the play into English, said he had invited a narrow range of age groups.

Pilgrims Hatch was at younger end, although at the morning performance there were parents with even younger children.

In Germany the play is widely shown to six-year-olds and has become a standard feature of sex eduction in that country.

The children take part in a number of "join-in" events and sing songs with sex education themes.

The performance uses large puppets to illustrate different parts of the body.

Mr Merrifield said: "The play uses things which the children already know and it uses the children's own language."

He says the play has now attracted the interest of the Department for Education and Employment for possible future performances.

n I'M TOO SEXY FOR MY SHOW: The cast of We Don't Talk About It, with Ken Campbell and Jeff Merrifield pictured right.

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