Children at a top Sussex private school have been offered counselling after a PORN MOVIE appeared on an interactive whiteboard during a lesson.

A teacher at the £11,200-a year-school accidentally beamed the blue film, featuring "adult sexual activity", into the classroom full of eight and nine year olds.

The teacher, who had previously taken the computer home, has not been dismissed from the posh Pennthorpe School in Rudgwick, West Sussex.

But the kids who saw the graphic video have been offered psychiatric support.

One furious parent, who did not want to be named, said: "We do not pay thousands of pounds for our children to get an education in pornography.

"It is unbelievable that a school, let alone a top public school, would expose innocent children to such harmful material.

"My child came home from school distraught. I shouldn't have to explain the birds and the bees to a nine year old."

Another parent said: "I know the children were not told to sit and watch this movie but these sort of films should not be anywhere near the classroom.

"The school have said the video only appeared briefly but it did enough damage for the kids to be offered counselling.

"Why wasn't this teacher sacked? Whether or not it was a mistake, nobody in such a responsible position should have porn on a school computer."

The school has contacted the parents of the pupils concerned to apologise and to offer counselling for any children disturbed by what they saw.

Headmaster Simon Moll said the porn movie featured "adult sexual activity" and was viewed on a new computer which had been taken home by a teacher before it had been fitted with monitoring software, designed to block adult material.

He said: "Regrettably, I can confirm that an incident recently took place in which material of an adult nature appeared briefly on an interactive whiteboard and was viewed by some year four children.

"We have established how this incident occurred.

"It was wholly accidental, but arose out of a misuse of a school computer by a member of staff, and a disciplinary procedure has taken place in accordance with school policy.

"We have now reviewed our procedures and policies to ensure this cannot happen again.

"We have also been in contact with the appropriate agencies including police and child protection.

"All are fully aware of what happened and are satisfied with the manner in which the school responded to the incident and with the appropriateness of the disciplinary outcome.

"The school's entire inventory of computers has been checked for inappropriate material and none has been found.

"I am therefore confident that this unfortunate incident was a one-off."

An interactive whiteboard is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector.

A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface, which is typically mounted to a wall or on a floor stand.

Pennthorpe School, which has the motto, 'Putting the fun into fundamentals', has 224 boys and 129 girls, aged between two and 13, and 50 members of staff.

Its annual day fees range between £1,260 and £11,262.

The school started in the 1930s as a Christian Boarding school for boys but several years later to its current manor house location.

It remained an all boys school until the early 1980s, when it became co-educational.