Good citizenship is not just a question of respect for one’s fellow humans, it seems. The government has decreed that children should be taught not to hurt a fly.

New curriculum guidance says citizenship classes should pay due regard to the wellbeing of what it calls “mini-beasts”, including bees, ants and worms.

The classes are part of the “animals and us” section of the primary school citizenship curriculum. It says children can become “active citizens” by learning that “other living things have needs and they have responsibilities to meet them”.

By the age of seven pupils should have learnt that “humans have a responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of animals, including mini-beasts” and will have been told rules for “behaviour in areas where animals live”: for example, “not stamping on insects”.

The model lessons, which are not compulsory for schools, have been drawn up by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Children are also taught that it is against the law to leave dogs in cars on a hot day or to disturb fledglings in nests.

Rhiannon Pursall, a beetle expert at the Royal Entomological Society, welcomed the move. “A lot of children do not recognise insects as animals. They stamp on ants and torture spiders, but they wouldn’t kill a cat or a dog,” she said.

“The younger that children can learn about caring for insects the better. If they can grasp the idea that insects are just as important as animals, that would be fantastic.”

Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative animal welfare spokesman, said it was important that schools had a sense of proportion. “All creatures great and small have their place in the world, but I hope children learn that swatting a mosquito is not as serious as inflicting pain on a puppy,” he said.

A spokesman for the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency, which drew up the guidelines, said insects were included because it was “important that young people develop an awareness of the responsibilities that flow from human relationships with the natural world”.

It added: “The loss of individual organisms, however small, may have unforeseen consequences for a whole habitat.”

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