A WIDNES primary school has been acknowledged as the first school in the world to be given a ‘Nurture International School’ award this month.

St Gerard's Catholic Primary & Nursery School received the ‘wonderful’ achievement on Friday, November 4, after working hard throughout the year to make it possible.

Nurture International are an organisation that believe a nurturing approach should be taken in every aspect of learning and run programmes that schools can work to in order to achieve the honourable title.

Yvonne from Nurture International said: "It has been an absolute pleasure working with this school. Every child we had the pleasure of talking to spoke enthusiastically about how much they love learning.

“When coming in to assess, as soon as you come into this school, the drive, passion and commitment from teachers and support staff and high-quality learning environment is evident.”

Mrs Kent, a special educational needs and disabilities coordinator at the Lugsdale Road primary school gave immense ‘passion’ and ‘commitment’ in helping to achieve the award.

And St Gerard’s have expressed excitement at working in partnership with Nurture International and other schools in the future, to develop a ‘nurturing’ community of educators.

Edd Naylor, assistant head said: "We are incredibly proud to receive this wonderful award. Our school, as acknowledged by Ofsted in their recent visit, enables children to thrive socially, educationally and emotionally because of the commitment by our community."