Meetings are being held in South East Cornwall in the run-up to April when there will be a major deployment to Afghanistan of service personnel from the Westcountry.

In order to support the high proportion of service families within Torpoint Nursery and Infants School, there has been a weekly forces meeting and the school has also liaised with Naval Welfare.

This week a presentation on the Operation Herrick deployment was set up at the school for families and professionals from organisations across the Rame Peninsula.

Close links with Naval Welfare have enabled the school to support service families in many ways and it will continue to do so throughout and following the deployment.

Families attended a presentation at the school early in the afternoon, followed later by representatives from schools across the Rame Peninsula, Torpoint Children's Centre, Torpoint Community Church and other organisations. Social worker Lynn Spencer welcomed everyone before Ian Robbins, of Royal Marines Welfare, gave a general overview on Operation Herrick.

Jim Gilholm, of the Royal Navy, gave a presentation on the navy website which has increasingly become an important resource for families and friends of deployed personnel and Adele Towsey, a community development worker for service personnel and their families, talked about current initiatives and support available to service families during deployments.

Headteacher Elisabeth Carney-Haworth said: 'We are always trying to find ways in which to support the service families within our school and the surrounding area and the opportunity arose to do a presentation on Operation Herrick through our close links with Naval Welfare. The presentation was both helpful and informative.'