Deaf children are making a splash in Bradford thanks to the generosity of a community award.

Pupils at Girlington Primary School have just achieved their Pool distance badges after their swimming club was chosen for the Telegraph & Argus Water Works award last year.

The school, which caters for profoundly deaf and hearing impaired children, applied for a £500 cash boost from Yorkshire Water, in association with the T&A, to help transport pupils to Shipley Pool where they could receive specialist tuition from instructors trained in sign language.

Pam Orme, of Girlington Primary School, said: "We are so grateful to the T&A and Yorkshire Water for choosing us.

"We just couldn't have done this without the £500 to pay for transport.

"It is so important children learn to swim in terms of water safety but it is not always easy to get them there and when we first started most of them were terrified.

"But by going together with friends and having the sign language they have built up confidence and it is so satisfying to see."

The group of 13 children have all achieved distance badges ranging from ten to 50 metres.

"The children need to watch and focus on the instructor, which they wouldn't have been able to do in a normal swimming class where spoken language was going on," said Mrs Orme.

"But the teacher and his communication skills helped the children enormously."

The school is now in the process of applying for funding to enable transport, provided by Newlands Community Transport, to continue next year.

"None of us can afford to let this go now but it looks hopeful we should fit the criteria for other funding to allow the club to continue next year," she said.

Karen O'Rourke, of Yorkshire Water, said: "We are delighted at the success of the school's swimming scheme, which ties in very nicely with our Swimcare programme, which has seen us award £15,000 to local authorities across the region.

"And is especially nice at this time of year when all children like to go swimming in the school holidays."

The Water Works scheme is due to be relaunched in the Autumn.