A religious couple say their young daughter was exposed to transgender "ideology" at primary school against their wishes.

Calvin and Nicola Watts withdrew three of their daughters from St Michaels Church of England Primary School, near Tenterden, after their eight-year-old was shown a video about trans and non-binary identity in class.

Mr Watts, a 38-year-old carpenter from Tenterden, says that before every school term he and his wife write to the school explicitly requesting their children do not receive education on these subjects. They believe it is for them as parents to introduce such matters to their daughters themselves.

Despite this instruction, they discovered their daughter had been shown a video in which a storybook about gender identity was read aloud. The school has since admitted in a letter to the couple that the material "was not appropriate for all children".

The father-of-four says the family is now seeking alternative schools for the three daughters who attend St Michaels, but the children are now back in class after their temporary withdrawal from the school.

He said: "At the beginning of each term we make a point to write to the school to say that we want to protect our children from this sort of ideology that's coming into the schools.

"The school basically went ahead anyway and did it without our consent.

"The children were shown this video - it basically tells children as young as three that they can be non-binary, that they can choose their own gender, and that the doctors guess the gender at birth.

"This was shown to our eight-year-old child without our consent and actually directly against our consent."

Mr and Mrs Watts have since met with Stuart Reeves, the chief executive of the Tenterden Schools Trust which operates St Michaels, to discuss their concerns, which were first reported by The Times.

In a letter to the couple, seen by KentOnline, Mr Reeves acknowledges some children "may well have found the material confusing at this age". But he points out there were adults present who could have answered questions the pupils may have had.

Mr Reeves said: "I have met with Mr and Mrs Watts to discuss their concerns in detail and have subsequently spoken with our teaching staff to better understand the decisions that were made in relation to the use of this particular resource.

"We remain committed to creating a culture of openness..."

"While I understand Mr and Mrs Watts' concerns, I have found no evidence whatsoever to suggest the promotion of any particular ideology in this school.

"While we would not expect parents to see or approve all of our teaching resources, we appreciate the need for greater transparency and clarity around certain topics and will endeavour to achieve this in future.

"We remain committed to creating a culture of openness and acceptance across our schools, where children feel free to express themselves and to ask questions in the knowledge that they will be supported and cared for."

Mr Watts says the family have considered home-schooling, but they are keen for their children to go to school with others.

They also feel the Church of England should be changing its policy to ensure teaching in its schools is more in line with traditional interpretation of the Bible.