New guidelines are to be issued to teachers in the hope of reducing gender stereotyping in schools.

The use of ‘sexist’ words and phrases such as ‘sissy’, ‘man-up’, ‘cupcake’ and ‘don’t be a girl’ will be strongly discouraged from use by children from as young as five.

Clare Thompson from the Institute of Physics, who was involved in drawing-up the guidelines, told The Sunday Times that “even low-level comments are potentially an issue with teachers using phrases such as ‘man up’.”

The guidelines will be sent to every school in England from tomorrow, along with the request that every school appoints a ‘gender champion’ to encourage girls to take more traditionally ‘male’ subjects such as science and economics, and more boys to take-up subjects viewed as ‘female’ including English and psychology.

Gender stereotypes have been blamed for the disparity between children selecting such subjects for GCSE and A Level – with boys being twice as likely to study maths, and girls being twice as likely to study English.

“Man up cupcake:” the sexist phrases banned from a playground near you