A new initiative aims to improve communication, as as pupils lacking speech and language skills more likely to be excluded and caught up in violence

As one watches the four- and five-year-olds sitting in a circle on the carpet at Rushey Green primary school enthusiastically describing picture cards, gang violence is one of the last things that comes to mind.

Yet these children are part of a project funded by the mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, which was set up to tackle the number of teenagers dying as a result of knife crime.