Argyll and Bute Council has been given a pound;147,000 grant by the Ministry of Defence to support schools which educate children of armed forces parents.

The money will be used to help forces children - who have often moved schools several times by the time they come to Argyll and Bute - to improve their self-confidence and integrate more quickly into their new communities.

There are currently about 780 forces children in Argyll and Bute - some 25 per cent of the school population in the Helensburgh and Lomond areas. But this is expected to rise in future as more service personnel move to the Clyde naval base at Faslane under the Maritime Change programme.

One strand of the project will provide maths recovery training to enable teachers to identify early where there are difficulties or gaps in learning maths.

The trained teachers will be able to work not just with the children of naval personnel, but with any children experiencing such difficulties; they will also support other teachers across Argyll and Bute in doing the same thing.

elizabeth.buie@tess.co.uk.