PARENTS have been shocked by a junior school's decision to put death on the curriculum.

The children, aged nine and ten, were shown photographs of a funeral parlour, including the mortuary.

Five out of 60 pupils were stopped by their parents from attending the lessons at Tanfield Lea Junior School, Stanley, County Durham.

Headteacher Kay Hemmings thought up the lessons to introduce the children to the subject of death, and to help them overcome losing a loved one, and wrote to parents about of the proposed project.

She asked an undertaker to come into class to show plans and pictures of his funeral parlour.

Parents were warned that their children would also be read stories about death by teachers, then encouraged to talk about the tales.

Miss Hemmings said: "Children sometimes have to cope with death at an early age, and it can be surrounded by some mystery.

"To tackle this, and also to enable children to talk about death, we felt a link with the funeral directors would be beneficial. The children were told about the process of death. I feel it has been a positive thing to do."

However, one mother - despite allowing her ten-year-old son to attend the lessons - said: "At this age they are too young and I am extremely worried that it will scare them."

Another mother said: "This is a good school and Miss Hemmings gets a lot more right than wrong, but I don't know what she was thinking about with this."

Joe Wilson, 47, of Co-op Funeral Directors in Stanley, said: "Photos of all the rooms were taken but obviously there were no bodies in the chapel of rest or in the mortuary.

"One parent told me that the scheme had helped their child."

A spokeswoman for Durham County Council said: "Death was not the prime focus, it was more about skills and jobs."

She added: "Children need to be prepared for bereavement, it happens to them. This was done naturally and calmly.

"The school has looked at a network of people who work for firms and looked at jobs that the children might not know about."