A HEAD teacher is calling for a return to traditional nativity plays after a poll showed only a third of UK schools now hold them.

Yarm Preparatory School head Bill Sawyer said banning Christian plays to be politically correct was 'divisive' rather than inclusive.

And after it was revealed that a shopping centre in Scotland has banned the manger scene he said schools should return to the traditional nativity story for their Christmas plays.

A survey carried out by parenting website Mumsnet found that only a third of UK schools invite parents to watch their children in a classic nativity play.

Almost half, or 47 per cent of schools offer an ‘updated nativity’.

While one in eight have dropped Christian references completely, the survey discovered.

However, the poll also showed that two-thirds of parents whose school does not hold a traditional nativity would prefer it to.

The Thistles shopping centre in Stirling has this year outlawed the nativity scene to avoid upsetting non-religious people.

And a school in America has boycotted Christmas carols that mention the name Jesus to be more sensitive to its diverse population.

Mr Sawyer said that even Sainsbury's Christmas TV advert this year depicted a school concert instead of the Bible story of Jesus' birth.

Pupils at Yarm Preparatory, which is a private school, are bucking the trend and performing the age-old Christmas story starring Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, three wise men, angels and shepherds.

Mr Sawyer added: "“It is incredibly sad that the nativity has become the exception rather than the rule and I believe that schools have a big part to play in its return.

"Our children thoroughly enjoy enacting the Christmas story as much as their parents enjoy watching it.

“The reasoning that it offends people of different religions is questionable and there is little evidence that the vast majority of people of different faiths feel this way.

“Banning Christian observances to be ‘politically correct’ is divisive and does not inspire unity or integration.

“We talk to our pupils about Christmas, Ramadan, Diwali, Hanukkah and other religious or cultural celebrations and encourage them to be accepting and open-minded and are very proud of our beautifully performed, humorous but definitely traditional nativity play.”

It emerged last week that management at the Thistles centre in Stirling declined a request for the traditional nativity display saying that customers did not want to be 'subjected to individual organisation's beliefs'.