Pupils at a Catholic secondary school were told they risked "destroying their soul and making their bodies sick" if they had sex.

Sixth-form students at Coloma Convent Girls' School in Shirley were handed leaflets warning them against sex outside of marriage and claiming condoms and contraceptive pills would leave them "isolated".

The handouts, entitled the Single Catholic's Guide, were published and distributed by Catholic youth movement Pure in Heart UK, which had been invited to give a talk by the school. 

The leaflet, issued to about 120 Year 13 students in a personal, social and health education session, also contained a story headed "dumb sex" about a man who infected his wife and child with diseases after an earlier one-night stand as an 18-year-old.

It added: "In fact, many who slept around or had sex outside of marriage have discovered that it was destroying their soul and making their bodies sick. They learnt the hard way that society's got it wrong.

"Society preaches condoms and the Pill - it puts you at risk and keeps you isolated. Yet the only way to fulfilling sexual intimacy is 'saved sex'. Go on - choose the best. You know it makes sense."

The pamphlet also suggested further reading, including websites linking homesexuality to childhood abuse and campaigning against pornography. 

A former Coloma Convent student condemned the leaflet as "an utterly shambolic display of ignorance and piety." 

Molly Tebbutt, who said she left the school in 2011 without receiving a single sex education lesson, told the Croydion Guardian: "It astounds me that the teaching is disregarding how much these girls already know.

Instead of teaching them about being comfortable with their own bodies and choices, as well as basic safety precautions, it is using body shaming and religious guilt in an attempt to shut down basic human emotions. 

"This is an all girl's school and yet basic feminism and indeed humanism is being disregarded. Absolutely, religion is free to be practised, but so is the right to life and education, both of which are being absolutely and unequivocally violated here."

Maureen Martin, the school's headteacher, said she agreed with "some of the sentiments" of the leaflet but not the "very extreme wording" of certain sections.

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The Single Catholic's Guide was handed to about 120 girls aged 17 and 18

She said the organisation had been invited after some girls asked for lessons on relationships, adding attendance at the talk had been voluntary and not all girls had attended.

Mrs Martin, who is also executive headteacher of the Quest Academy and Archbishop Lanfranc School, said: "What I didn't know they were going to do was to hand out a leaflet at the end.

"Some of the sentiments in it would accord with our ethos but others, the words that were used were not words I would have used and therefore I would not have wished for them to distribute it.

"I have never used words like that. I would always say that God loves us, all of us, where we are, as we are. I have spoken to the organisers straight afterwards when I realised what had happened. They had given this leaflet out before and no one had ever commented."

The headteacher said she would invite the organisation back to speak to students again after it agreed to change of the wording of its leaflets.

She added: "This was one talk among a huge variety of different people who come in a talk to the girls. We are open to all sorts of different opinions and ideas. You might say that a section of it was a very extreme wording of what the sentiment of the talk was.

"I would have them back because they have already agreed to change the literature. The talk itself was not the issue, it was the literature."

Pure in Heart UK describes itself as "an international Catholic movement of young adults who through prayer and friendship strive together to learn, live and share the truth, beauty and meaning of human sexuality".

The organisation's Irish branch was criticised last year for reportedly taping together school pupils by the wrists to illustrate why they should not have sex before marriage.

The final page of the leaflet issued to students lists suggested books on sex and relationships and links to websites, including US anti-pornography campaign Fight the New Drug and the Chastity Project, which promotes sexual abstinence.

The Chastity Project's website criticises the usage of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDs and claims gay people who act upon sexual urges are "choosing sin".