Sexual abuse of girls in schools is “accepted as part of everyday life” and the rise of “lad culture” means teachers are effectively “condoning sexual harassment”, a government report has warned.

It highlights the “worrying trend” of young children who learn about sex and relationships from online pornography. And it says that boys are now surrounded with social and cultural messages that encourage them to act in “sexually dominant ways, and to collude with other males who do so”.

The report discloses that Ofsted inspectors are now forced to check for examples of “sexist” bullying when evaluating schools. The document, written by the Department for Education in response to a report by the women and equalities committee, details a series of plans to try to tackle the “worrying problem”.