My interest piqued by the reality TV title, thinking I was going to get a show where teen mums (models / plumbers / nuns / insert group of choice) took over a secondary school for the week and hilarity ensued, I channel-hopped over to Teen Mum High last week and was quite astonished by what I actually got.

Teen Mum High is a documentary set in a Pupil Referral Unit designed for girls who are pregnant (or have given birth) and are aged sixteen or under and therefore required to complete their compulsory education to GCSE level.

The unit offers them the opportunity to complete their GCSEs and SATs, while also providing them with practical advice on life skills, such as safe sex, health, cookery and parenting. The unit is staffed by both healthcare and education professionals and girls can use the on-site crèche facility while they study in the classrooms.

I was positively agape in the opening scenes, as a girl and her mum are looking through photos and casually drop the bombshell that shortly after the 12-year old was photographed looking like any other bored schoolgirl at a Spanish holiday resort with her folks, she came home and told her parents she was pregnant.

While it is very easy to make assumptions about the ‘sort of girl’ who finds herself pregnant in her teens, this documentary highlights some often overlooked aspects of teen pregnancy, such as the strong moral values of girls who refuse the so-called ‘easy option’ of termination and the strength they are required to display in the face of public opinion which labels them as promiscuous, stupid or both.

The girls featured in the documentary talk about the focus that becoming parents has given them, which has enabled them to rise above their difficult circumstances and given them the push they needed to re-engage in education and succeed, if not for their own sakes, then for their children’s. The majority of them are no longer involved with their children’s fathers, one of whom is filmed in a shopping centre, smoking cigarettes with his friends on the street and clearly unwilling or unable to face up to the responsibility of impending fatherhood.

The parents featured were all completely shocked by the news of their daughters even being sexually active, let alone becoming mothers and the message of the documentary is clear. However hard it may be, all parents need to engage their children in dialogue about these issues as soon as they can, or they may miss the boat altogether.

This documentary was incredibly touching, especially some of the interviews with the teachers that work with the girls. They are certainly not supporting teen motherhood as a preferred lifestyle choice and one admits that she would even have encouraged her own daughters to terminate a teenage pregnancy should the situation have arisen, but they are all fully committed to ensuring the pupils and their children are surrounded by love and support, not shame and ridicule.

We Brits even have our own name for pregnant teenagers (and “pramface” is no term of endearment) so it’s strange that this film still manages to shock throughout, without being tabloid sensational. There’s a fair few heartbreaking moments, including Becky talking about her relationship with her own mother - “I wouldn’t do… (what she did to me) to a cat”.

The film is a very worthwhile watch (but get the tissues ready) and will certainly challenge your perceptions about this controversial issue.

The Bare Facts season is an initiative designed by BBC Learning, and incorporates documentary film, radio programming and web resources, all designed to provide practical advice and support for parents preparing to talk to their children about love, sex and relationships.

Also showing in the season are Abortion – The Choice and Virgin Memories, which deal with other, equally difficult issues in the debate, and the BBC Bare Facts website has practical advice for parents on the subject.