School praised for helping prematurely born pupils

A Devon school has been recognised for the it gives pupils who were born prematurely.

Kingsbridge Primary School has been given a Smallest Things Prem Award to acknowledge the extra training its staff does to learn more about the impact that being born prematurely can have on some children's health and development.

The award was given to the school on Belle Cross Road by The Smallest Things charity, which s families of children born early.

Assistant head teacher Miranda Martyn said the school wanted to provide the so staff could do what was best for pupils.

Ms Martyn said: "When a child was born prematurely, we want to understand from the experts of the children - the parents - what works best at school and what works best at home.

"We put things in place which might be additional in reading, it might be they need some help getting changed for PE or they need a little bit of time."

A full-term pregnancy typically lasts between 37 and 42 weeks and babies born before this are considered premature.

The Smallest Things charity said, on average, two to three children per class would have been pre-term with more than 50,000 babies born prematurely in the UK each year.

However, it said many schools still did not understand the impact this could have on some pupils' learning.

Catriona Ogilvy, founder of the charity, said Kingsbridge Primary School had "gone above and beyond" with its for pupils.

She said: "They are asking parents at registration about their child's pre-term health history, being able to better identify children who may have those additional learning needs.

"Most importantly, they are training staff so that they can identify early children who may need additional and be able to put in place as soon as possible."

Amy, whose son was born at 26 weeks, said the at the school was like an "extra layer of care and attention".

She added being born early presented "stumbling blocks" for children and the help from the school helped her son overcome these.

She said: "They are completely equipped to be able to help my son though that and him in different ways, meaning that he gets the best out of school.

"So it is amazing, their awareness is just phenomenal."

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