Lucky children at one West Cumbrian school do not get told to keep quiet in class.

In fact, at Ellenborough and Ewanrigg Infant School in Maryport, the very opposite is true.

The school has become one of the first in Cumbria to sign up to the Voice 21 oracy programme, a project aimed at teaching children communication skills.

Michelle Jones, who is running the scheme at the school, said: “A fair number of our children start school with low communication skills. They tend to answer yes or no but find it hard to elaborate further.”

Working with Foundation Stage head Alex Harker, she said the scheme really amounts to teaching some children to talk.

“This is especially important at the moment when they need to communicate about how they are feeling in this time of Covid-19. We have only started but we are looking forward to seeing the results.”