TEACHERS at a Darwen school will be seeing triple after triplets and two sets of twins joined the reception class.

The siblings make up seven of the 30 children in the class at St Barnabas C of E Primary School, Knowlesley Road.

The twins are Robert and Daniel Ashworth, and Abigail and Emily Birtwell, and the triplets are Kayden, Kian and Kye Bellusci, all four years old.

Joanna Turner, class one teacher, admitted to being shocked when she first heard the news of her new pupils.

She said: “We’ve had twins here before - there is a set in year five and year six - but never two sets in the same class before, and no triplets as far as I can remember.

“It’s very, very unusual.”

The children started at the school on Friday and have already settled in well.

The school does not anticipate having to put any special measures in place because of the high number of siblings.

All of the children are fraternal (non-identical) siblings.

Mrs Turner added: “They have confidence because they have got each other in the class, but they are making their own friends. They don’t just rely on their brother or sister.

“I would say they are all independantly confident.

“Now I have got used to them all I can easily tell them apart and they each have their own individual personality traits.

“They are individuals and we treat them in that way.”