VITAL `nurture' services at a school serving a highly-deprived area are under threat after losing out on government money, its principal has warned.
Sacred Heart PS in north Belfast funds its own nurture room to tackle issues including poverty, social exclusion and mental health.
About 70 per cent of its pupils receive free meals and 33 per cent have special educational needs.
Education Minister Peter Weir this month announced that 15 schools would share £4 million to support nurture.
A further 31 existing projects will continue to receive cash.
Sacred Heart principal Joanne Smyth said she was disappointed to miss out.
She has now written to Department of Education officials asking for an explanation.
Her school has a `rainbow room' which provides short term early intervention with P2 and P3 children, as well as a sensory room.
In addition, it has a parent support worker who assists children with trauma and resilience understanding.
It also introduced a project called Take Five, which involves breathing techniques to calm children and get them ready to learn while feeling safe and happy.
"We have been self-funding our nurture room for three years and have been following the close guidance that the current 31 schools, who do receive nurture funding, follow," Ms Smyth said.
"We operate the nurture room on a full-time basis completing detailed data daily. We have invested finances into training staff through Nurture UK and managed to develop our own steering group committee. However, unfortunately, next year we are unable to maintain this service due to lack of funding and support from DE.
"Nurture for the children in Sacred Heart, in one of the highest areas of deprivation, has been a great success with children becoming calmer and more confident with a readiness to learn and excel in their learning. However, this resource will now no longer be available to assist our most vulnerable children, especially when access to services with SEN services are extremely limited and difficult to source."
Ms Smyth said nurture within primary schools was highly successful in its aim of achieving improvements in the social, emotional and behavioural skills of children from deprived areas who were exhibiting significant difficulties.
"We need to retain this service due to the increasing needs displayed by the children, however we need the funding to continue with our nurture room which is a vital service and has had a huge impact on our children," she added.
"We urge the Department of Education to consider funding our nurture provision. We look forward to finding out how the selection of schools were decided upon and why Sacred Heart Primary School did not meet this criteria."
