Pupils are being offered screening tests for a sexually transmitted disease (STD) at schools in Sussex for the first time.

Longhill High School in Rottingdean, near Brighton, is the first state school in the county to provide a drop-in clinic to screen senior pupils for chlamydia.

Independent girls' school Roedean has also taken part in the screening programme run by several primary care trusts in East Sussex and Mid Sussex to reduce the level of the infection.

It is part of a Government scheme which aims to combat rising numbers of teenagers who are diagnosed with the bacterial infection.

One in ten under-25-year-olds in Brighton and Hove has been diagnosed as having chlamydia.

If not treated it can spread to other parts of the body causing serious long-term complications such as infertility.

Nurses from the Claude Nicol Centre at the Royal Sussex County Hospital held an assembly with Year 11 pupils at Longhill earlier this term and held a one-day drop-in clinic a week later offering pupils the chance to take the test.

About 25 girls and boys out of a total of 250 pupils took the test.

But nurses would not reveal the results.

Longhill headteacher Geoff Ellis said: "This is a way of making the test more available to young people. We have to be realistic.

"Some students will experiment with sex and it's better they are safe and know where they can get help and advice."

Sexual health nurse Charlotte Jurd, who ran the clinic, said: "Chlamydia can have devastating effects. Often there are no symptoms so people infect others without realising it.

"Nationally we have a big problem with teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Sexual health has been a taboo subject for too long but we need to bring it out in the open."

Girls take a swab themselves and boys provide a urine sample for the voluntary test.

Ms Jurd said nurses want to make the clinic and other programmes on sexual health regular events at the school in Falmer Road and hope other schools will get involved.

Parents with children at Longhill were informed of the development by letter before Easter and Mr Ellis said no complaints were made.

Brighton and Hove City councillor Lynda Hyde, who represents Rottingdean ward, said: "I am surprised by this but I know chlamydia is such a devastating disease in later life.

"If the Government thinks early screening will eliminate problems associated with chlamydia then it's a good thing.

"Young girls would be more likely to go to a school nurse for a test like this than to their family doctor because of the parental connections."

Johan Van Vuuren has two teenage daughters at sixth-form college and is a governor at the school. He said: "Personally I don't think parents should be alarmed. It sounds horrifying but this is a problem in Brighton. If we can detect it and stop it, it's for the best."

Longhill was chosen in part because the school's catchment area includes Woodingdean, which has a high number of young people and therefore a higher number of chlamydia cases.

For more information call 01273 690985 or visit www.givemethetest.com