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A college has been condemned for asking 16 and 17-year-old students whether they were gay or straight on registration forms.

The teenagers were asked to complete the paperwork and indicate whether they were bisexual, a gay man, a lesbian, a heterosexual, a transsexual or 'prefer not to say'.

The questions came on the same form they completed with innocent personal details such as their age, address and contact details.

Some students have been in tears and claim it is an invasion of their privacy.

They demanded to know why such a personal question is on the front of the form along with their names when the information could be provided anonymously.

Student Kelsey Bennett, 16, said: 'You did feel under pressure to tick a box and then if you ticked 'prefer not to say” it might make people question why you have done that.'

Ray Sanchez, 16, was shocked to see the question on the front of the form.

'It was odd because it was amongst a jumble of basic questions you expect like contact details and ethnicity.'

Connor Hewitt, 16, said: 'I don’t get why they need to know.'

Gay campaigners criticised the college's approach and called on staff to review the enrolment procedure.

Wes Streeting, Head of Education at equality campaigners Stonewall, said:‘Sexual orientation monitoring can be a helpful tool in making sure that all students receive a high quality experience, but it is simply not acceptable that students were asked to disclose their sexual orientation in a way that failed to respect their privacy.

'There are lots of examples of excellent practice and Barnsley College really should have done their homework before embarking on a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided initiative.'

Kay Tinkler, co-chairman of the Barnsley Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Forum said it could have been done in a different way.

'I’m not sure why it’s on the front of an enrolment form,' she said.

'Coming from a 16-year-old’s point of view when just filling in your name on a form can be daunting it is probably better done anonymously in a way that respects people’s privacy.'

But a Barnsley College spokesman said it was a method of monitoring the success of protected characteristic groups including age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

It was part of the 'general equality duty' which came into force in 2011 which required public authorities to consider how they can 'contribute to advancing equality.'

Barnsley College Principal, Colin Booth, said: 'We apologise to any students who were upset over questions asked on our enrolment form.

'All colleges are required to collect this and similar information in order to fulfill our duties under the Public Sector Equality Duty 2011.

'We will review and change how we collect this information taking into account feedback from our students.'

The college said it used to report on success rates for protected characteristic groups without identifying students.