A school is hoping to raise £10,000 to create a nurture room to help children deal with their mental health after five children in every classroom are struggling.

In Baxenden St John's C of E Primary, headteacher Julie Green was inspired to help the children in her school after seeing chilling research that one in six children are suffering mental health problems - equating to 5 children in every class of 30 - according to a survey published by NHS Digital.

The nurture room, which will be called “The Beehive”, will help the children and staff cope with mental health struggles.

At the start of lockdown, all the pupils and staff were given a bee bracelet, which was donated by 'LaVieZoEm', to remind everyone they were 'one school family'.

Mrs Green said: “Now more than ever it is important that we consider the impact that the pandemic has had on our young people.

"Here at St John’s Baxenden we want to support more than just the education of our pupils, happy and resilient children are more likely to succeed and achieve and we believe by developing an environment that supports and builds the resilience of our children, we can help them face current and future challenges.

"It is also important that we train our staff so that they feel confident to support our pupils.

"We have no way of knowing what the long term impact of the pandemic will be on our pupils or staff.”

The £10,000, which the school are hoping to raise by summer 2022, will cover structural alterations for the room, equipment and furniture, programmes to support the pupils, training for staff to deliver the programmes as well as the provision in support of the health and wellbeing of staff, with further plans to develop a long-term plan for the school in targetting mental health.

They are hoping to raise the money in a number of ways including child sponsored events, the GoFundMe page, grants and local business sponsorship.

One of the pupils, Riley, 8, has already raised £300 by giving up his computer for lent and taking on challenges including climbing Pendle Hill and planting sunflowers for his classmates. 

Chair of the PTFA, Amanda Halstead added: "The school is central to our community and has been fantastic during the lockdown, we want to be able to show our appreciation but also support them in the work that they do.

"After all the children are the future of this community and if we can help them now then we are effectively helping our community as well."