A SPECIAL school is using an innovative new teaching method in a bid to win specialist status.

Disabled dance specialist Alan Martin visited Tor View Special School, Haslingden, yesterday to show youngsters techniques to communicate through dance.

And today pupils will be showing off their new skills to parents, while inspectors visit the school to assess its application to become a specialist arts college.

The 15 children, aged 11 to 16, all have limited mobility or communication, and staff are hoping that the dancing will help to improve their skills in these areas.

Teacher Susie Campbell, who has led the project with colleague Jacqui Buckley, said the school would continue to use techniques they had learned to aid pupils' communication through dance.

The school is also hoping to buy a "sound beam", used in perform-ances to show up the children's movement through music.

Mrs Campbell said: "Obviously this will help with the school getting its specialist status, but we will be making dance a major part of the curriculum, along with other creative and expressive arts.

"What Alan does isn't wheel-chair dancing - in fact I think he is completely unique in what he does, using communication aids and movement to express himself.

"He is a great role model for the children because they, like most people, can find it difficult to perform in front of a group, especially their peers.

"But they see him doing it in his wheelchair and he really inspires them. It's another way of communicating for them and it helps them all feel less inhibited."