Eight-year-olds should be encouraged to write letters to Santa not pushed towards a political agenda on refugees, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has warned.
The NSW Education Department is investigating a state primary school after politicians were sent a petition from year three pupils lobbying against children being held in immigration detention on Nauru.
"I think at the age of eight, teachers shouldn't be asking kids to get too political. That's a bit young," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham expects sanctions to be placed on teachers who abuse the trust placed in them.
"Classrooms are for learning, they are for delivering the national curriculum, they are not for teachers to prosecute their own personal political agendas," Senator Birmingham told reporters in Melbourne.
Parents would find it unacceptable for students to be used as political tools, he said.
