By DANIEL MARTIN and ANDY DOLAN

Last updated at 11:10 01 May 2007

A school has admitted handing out 345 morning-after pills to teenage girls without telling their parents.

The figure for contraceptives distributed at Lutterworth Grammar School and Community College over four years is believed to be the highest in England and Wales.

Parents and family groups were outraged at the "disgusting" and "wicked" scheme which they say encourages promiscuity and could put children at risk of contracting sexually-transmitted diseases.

A female GP attends the school, in Leicesterfar-shire, two lunchtimes a week, while the school nurse is present on a further two days a week. Both are able to prescribe the morning-after pill.

A source at the school said the service was brought in at the suggestion of a local doctors' surgery four years ago. It is "strictly confidential" - so parents are not told if contraceptives are given out unless their daughters confide in them.

The policy of dishing out free contraceptives to schoolchildren without telling their parents is a key plank of Labour's teenage pregnancy strategy.

Ministers launched it with great fanfare in 2000 following concerns over Britain's teenage pregnancy rate - the highest in Europe.

The strategy aims to cut the number of under-18 conceptions by 50 per cent by 2010.

Currently, around one in three pupils has access to condoms and emergency contraception without their parents' knowledge at sexual health clinics in secondary schools.

But pregnancy rates are still going up. Official figures show pregnancies among under-18s rose in 2005 to 39,683 - up from 39,593 in 2004 and much higher than the 35,400 recorded in 1995.

Despite its name, the Lutterworth school is a Church of England voluntary-controlled comprehensive. Its 1960s campus dominates the affluent market town.

The school has 1,900 pupils aged 14-19. More than a third - 686 - are in the sixth form, which may go some way to explaining the high number of morning-after pills given out.

One 16-year-old pupil, who would not be identified, said: "You can go and see the nurse at lunch or break. You can get bags of condoms or the morning-after pill if you need it. As far as the students are concerned, it's no big deal. People can go on a daily basis. Quite a few of my friends go - it's pretty popular."

Her 42-year-old father said: "A lot of parents will be shocked, not knowing if their children have had these pills. To be honest, to hear about this is disgusting. I didn't know this sort of thing was going on."

The girl's mother, also 42, said: "This service says to the children that they can go and have sex - and that concerns me. The morning-after pill means unprotected sex.

"If you have unprotected sex then you are putting yourself at risk not just of getting pregnant but of catching sexually-transmitted diseases."

Family campaigners joined the attack on the school and the Government's teenage pregnancy strategy.

Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, called the school's actions "thoroughly irresponsible, arrogant and wicked", claiming they will expose girls to the risk of infertility brought on by sexually-transmitted diseases.

"It will simply encourage schoolchildren into promiscuity," he said. "When are people going to learn that throwing contraceptives at children only increases the rate of teenage pregnancy?"

Norman Wells, of the pressure group Family and Youth Concern, pointed to 23 studies from ten countries which found that increased access to the morning-after pill had made no difference to unintended pregnancy and abortion rates.

He said schools should start teaching abstinence rather than handing out contraceptives.

"In divorcing sex from marriage in our thinking and teaching, we have cheapened it and reduced it to a casual recreational activity," he said.

Head Edwin de Middelaer said: "Our sixth form is the size of most schools so that may explain these figures to some degree.

"Although they are surprising, we think this healthcare provision is the right thing for the school to do. We have had no complaints from parents."