Children as young as three are being asked to sign a contract pledging not to use transphobic language at school.

The pledge is contained in a ‘home-school agreement’ which all children must sign before they start at Turnham Primary School in September.

The infants must also promise to refrain from using homophobic and racist phrases and to be tolerant of people with different sexual orientations and lifestyles. Each child must print their name and provide a signature to confirm that they understand their ‘responsibilities’ while attending the school.

Anti-bullying: Turnham Primary School - led by executive headteacher Selina Sharpe - sent out an agreement for all new children to sign before they start in the new academic year

Tick-box bureaucracy: But parents were dumbfounded when it included a demand not to use 'transphobic language', as it would mean explaining something many three-year-olds are not even aware exists

It is understood that teachers at the South-East London school introduced the document to help stamp out playground prejudice against transgender people and a wide range of disabilities and cultures.

But yesterday the chairman of governors said that they knew nothing about the change to the contract, which was also dismissed as ‘bonkers’ by parents who said pre-school children could not be expected to understand such complex issues.

The contract was sent to parents last week along with the letters offering a place at the school. It reads: ‘We believe that every child can and should reach their full potential. This is achieved when all staff, parents and children understand their responsibilities and work together towards the same goals, as detailed in our home-school agreement.’

In a list of responsibilities for pupils to sign is a clause which states pupils will be tolerant of ‘sexual orientation or lifestyle and refrain from using racist or homophobic or transphobic language in school’.

The contract does not say what will happen to pupils who disobey the clauses.

Yesterday, one mother said: ‘My son is three yet he is meant to pledge not to use “transphobic” language.

‘How am I meant to explain it to my three-year-old that he must sign on the dotted line not to do something which he is not even aware exists when he can barely hold a crayon? This just fills me with dread about what sort of politically correct, tick-box bureaucracy runs this school.

‘I agree that teachers need to be made aware of transgender issues as it affects a number of children who suffer in silence, but to make three-year-olds sign up to something they do not even know exists is bonkers.’

Sorry: The school's chair of governors has apologised for any offence or distress caused to parents or pupils

Turnham Primary is a foundation school, which means it is funded by the Government through Labour-run Lewisham Council, which yesterday refused to comment on the matter. The school, led by executive head teacher Selina Sharpe, also declined to comment.

Yesterday, Robert Mapp, chairman of governors, said he was not aware of ‘the change in format’ to the home-school agreement.

He said Miss Sharpe was an ‘interim executive head’ at Turnham, adding: ‘Given she is a Lewisham Council employee who was personally referred to Turnham Primary Foundation School by the executive director for children and young people, Frankie Sulke, I am surprised the local authority have elected not to comment on the matter once.

‘On behalf of the governing body I would like to sincerely apologise for any offence or distress caused to our parents and pupils. Until I have held a full inquiry into the matter, I am not in a position to make any further comment.’

The controversy comes in the wake of the Coalition’s British Values drive, which requires all schools to teach tolerance of other faiths and lifestyles. It was introduced last year in response to the Trojan Horse scandal, which saw schools in Birmingham allegedly infiltrated by Muslim hardliners hoping to impose an Islamic agenda.

But since then, schools have complained they have been penalised by Ofsted for failing to meet the criteria. Two Christian schools in the North East said pupils were asked ‘inappropriate’ questions on race and sexuality – and branded intolerant when they gave the wrong answers. One ten-year-old girl was left in tears after inspectors allegedly asked her ‘whether she felt trapped in someone else’s body’.