Primary school children are taught - as part of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education - about the many dangers they may face growing up: stranger danger, bullying, substance abuse, sex and relationships and, most recently, staying safe online.
However, inexplicably, we do not feel able to tackle obesity, which has risen from six per cent of the population in 1980 to 27 per cent in the UK today.
One in 10 British children are already obese when they start primary school, and this figure doubles by the time they leave at 11.
For the first time, the annual National Child Measurement Programme has released official data on "severe" obesity. This shows that children living in the most deprived homes and from minority ethnic backgrounds have the highest rates of severe obesity (see graphics).
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