Gay teachers have been targeted on social media sites and head teachers offered police security advice as protests by Muslim and Christian parents over what children are taught about relationships in primary schools spread across England.

Parents are objecting to new government guidance that makes relationships education compulsory in primary schools and sex education compulsory in secondary schools. In many primaries children are already being taught about the existence of families with “two mummies or two daddies”.

WhatsApp groups set up by activists and protesters to share information about the new guidance have pointed to gay teachers, teaching union sources say. Staff at Parkfield Community School in Birmingham, where the protests started, have written to the education secretary, Damian Hinds, to ask for backing. They