But primary school teachers across the country will soon be receiving an information pack extolling the virtues of taking their pupils on a tour of the local cemetery.

Produced by The Living Churchyard and Cemetery Project, the education packs are designed around the subjects that make up Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum, which caters for seven to 11-year-olds.

They argue that graveyards are good places to teach:

Science - "burial grounds are havens for local wildlife because they are preserved from development".

Geography - "burial grounds are safe and bounded areas in which to learn practical geographical skills".

History - "burial grounds provide a fascinating insight into local history and social changes over the years".

Art - "burial grounds are often filled with visually striking natural and man-made features".

Maths - "burial grounds provide numerous opportunities for the calculation of shapes, spaces and quantities".

The Living Churchyard and Cemetery Project's organisers hope the exercise will cause a change in people's attitudes towards the nation's gardens of rest and reduce the distress caused to the bereaved.

"Dog fouling, children playing on graves, litter, vandalised memorials - these are all symptoms of a society that neither appreciates nor respects its cemeteries," said Theresa Quinn, chairwoman of the project and chief executive of the National Association of Memorial Masons.

"We hope that by introducing youngsters to churchyards and cemeteries at an early age they will realise the enormous importance of these places and will grow up respecting them and everything in them, both living and dead."