An Oxford pre-school threatened with closure last year has boosted its budget as well as its roll numbers with a £6,000 grant to support children with special needs.

Pupil numbers have picked up at Shepherd's Hill Pre-School in Blackbird Leys, Oxford, since changes to school admissions caused a dip in numbers at several Oxfordshire nurseries last year.

Now the nursery is celebrating a Local Network Fund grant of £6,077 from the Oxfordshire Community Foundation.

More than 40 per cent of the 42 children at the nursery need extra support. Many speak English as a second language or have an emotional or behavioural difficulty.

The grant enables the pre-school to pay for a full-time special needs teacher, Bev Massingham, to work with the children.

She provides a range of support including speech and language, emotional, social behaviour and physical.

The pre-school is planning to move from its premises in Nightingale Avenue into two classrooms at Windale Primary School on the estate in September.

Manager Jo Rooney said: "We have a very high number of children with special needs who need extra help so we are very pleased with this grant.

"We have had to pay for the special needs teacher out of our own budget so this grant releases some of our own funds to spend on equipment for the children instead of wages."

Emma Tracy, director of the Oxfordshire Community Foundation, a Government initiative to support small voluntary and community groups working with disadvantaged children and young people, added: "We are delighted to contribute towards this valuable group.

"We try to focus our grants on small, grass-roots, community organisations which are making small but significant differences to the lives of children and young people."