A RESEARCH team which hopes to transform the education of thousands of children with learning difficulties got down to work yesterday after winning almost £400,000 to complete their work.

Earlier this week, the joint team from Durham University's school of education and department of psychology discovered they had won funding for the three-and-a-half year study of working memory.

Yesterday, academics visited Gilesgate Primary School in Durham City, the first school in the county to volunteer to take part in the work.

Experts believe that as many as 70 per cent of children who struggle in school may have problems with their working memory, which means they have problems retaining information for the short time it takes to do mental arithmetic or other relatively simple combinations of tasks.

Traditionally, educationalists have tried to overcome the problem by teaching pupils in bite-sized chunks - the joint team from the university wants to test whether it is possible to improve results by changing the way children are taught by introducing teachers to a range of techniques designed to deal directly with the problem.

Yesterday, the academics embarked on a screening programme of hundreds of County Durham's primary school pupils in the hope of finding 100 suitable children, whose parents are happy for them to take part in the study.

Professor Susan Gathercole, of the department of psychology, said: "We find teachers are really responsive to these ideas. What we are talking about is good practice in the classroom anyway."

Colleague Professor Joe Elliott, from the School of Education, said: "The potential consequences of the research are vast in terms of teacher training if it places the focus on children's thinking processes rather than just looking at the curriculum."