A Fleetwood school has become the first in the town to start a nurture group for children who are struggling to integrate into school life.

Chaucer Primary School started the group, for children aged five to seven, who have started school but have difficulty in mixing with other children and adults.

The class is run by a qualified teacher and children in the group usually meet before registration and during the day before rejoining their mainstream classes.

Peter Gerrish, headteacher at the school on Chaucer Road, said: “It’s not necessarily for children with learning or behavioural difficulties but children who are withdrawn and quiet.

“The environment in the group is a cross between home and the classroom.

“It focuses on the development of language and communication skills and trying to get the children to socialise with adults and other children.

“The number of children in the nurture group is very small but we believe the class will successfully help children where they might previously have struggled.”

Mr Gerrish was speaking out after Chaucer Primary School was revealed as one of the borough’s schools with the highest amount of cash reserves at the end of the financial year.

Nurture groups are part of a national programme to improve the skills of children and help with integration into school life, but Chaucer Primary is the first school in Fleetwood to start one.

The project has been funded entirely out of the school’s own resources and opened this month.

Mr Gerrish added: “The school does all it can to help its pupils and people involved are seeing improvements, class sizes have reduced and we have also spent heavily on refurbishing many of the classrooms.”