PAINTERS, musicians, actors and even gardeners will take lessons at Oxford schools in a bid to improve cultural education.

A total of 14 schools have signed up to the Cultural Education Partnership alongside local theatre, music, dance and gardening groups.

Under the programme, artists and staff from these organisations will 'join forces' with teachers and students on a range of creative projects.

The CEP was formed by Oxford City Council in collaboration with the county council and Artswork in response to Arts Council England’s Cultural Education Challenge, calling for 'a more coherent and visible delivery of cultural education'.

The CEP is structured in four strands:

1. Music – a project looking beyond traditional ways of learning music, focusing more on the act of playing and expressing creativity through sound.

2. Reminiscence and storytelling – a project looking at the notion of people who come from elsewhere and settle in Oxford.

3. Professional development – focusing on the collaborative learning between teachers and visiting artists.

4. Babylab – looking at how children and their parents learn, in conjunction with Oxford Brookes University psychology department.

Projects will take place once a week, with a Windrush strand occurring presently until June and the music strand set to start next September until the following July.

In its findings from a pilot study report, Arts Council England reported children and young people taking part in the CEP had 'increased engagement in culture, enhanced understanding of local history, and heightened pride in the local area'.

Anyone who wishes to submit a story for the storytelling project, donate funds or generally contribute is encouraged to get in touch by emailing cultureteam@oxford.gov.uk.

For more information on the CEP project go to artscouncil.org.uk/children-and-young-people/working-partnership.

The schools so far signed up are:

• St Swithuns Primary

• Our Lady’s Primary

• Rose Hill Primary

• St Francis Primary

• Windmill Primary

• Church Cowley Primary

• John Henry Newman

• Bayard’s Hill Primary

• St Andrews CE Primary

• Mabel Pritchard Special School

• North Hinksey CE Primary

• Larkrise Primary

• West Oxford Primary