RUSSIAN education chiefs have turned to Blackburn College in a bid to help children caught up in the Beslan school tragedy get their lives back on track.

The hostage-taking raid on a school in Beslan by pro-Chechen gunmen in September 2004 sparked a bloodbath with 176 children and 160 adults perishing in the tragedy.

But many more caught up in the atrocity were left with disabilities and emotional scars.

Determined to learn more about how to integrate the affected children into mainstream schools, a party from Beslan Education Authority visited the college in Feilden Street to learn how best to support students with learning difficulties and disabilities.

The college was chosen as it is a leader in the field and graded outstanding by Ofsted for educational and social inclusion.

The party, including teachers, social workers and psychologists were able to see how students no matter what their disabilities, learning difficulties or other problems, receive support to enable them to have the same opportunities and join mainstream students in class.

Ann Harwood, the college's additional learning support manager, said: "We were delighted to welcome the visitors from Beslan.

"We believe the student should be put first and not their disability.

"They were impressed with how all our students mixed effortlessly.

"We will keep in touch with the people in Beslan who in the past would have sent away children and adults with disabilities to separate institutions but they are having to take a different approach now."

The college's emphasis on inclusivity followed a report in the 90s which confirmed its fears that students with disabilities and learning difficulties were too segregated from other students.

Out went separate teaching blocks and lesson times in favour of developing an additional learning support programme which ranges from having support workers and tutors to note-takers and sign language co-ordinators in class.

It's not the first time East Lancashire has passed on its educational expertise to other countries.

Last week youth workers from Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Norway arrived in Blackburn to learn how the borough's youth play a part in the community.

It followed a visit to Burnley in March from a group of Mexican teachers, headed by the country's director of education, to find out how the schools implemented the curriculum.