Children who set up art studio win £200,000 Lottery grant

Children at a Scottish primary school have been awarded £200,000 from the National Lottery to spend on an arts project of their choice in recognition of their success in setting up an award-winning art studio.

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) said it was unprecedented to make such a grant to children but considered that the pupils of Caol Primary School in Fort William were "worth the risk".

The award, which will be phased over three years, is to be spent on expanding the "Room 13" project to other schools in the Highlands and setting up a waterfront gallery to display the results.

Under the existing scheme, the 185 pupils, aged between 8 and 11, are allowedto visit the studio at any time - provided they are not behind with their studies - to create visual art or discuss literature or philosophy.

The award comes as art teaching is being forced to the margins of the timetable in many primary schools because of the emphasis on literacy and numeracy in the national curriculum.

With its own artist in residence, Rob Fairley, the school has established a reputation as a cradle of Britart. The school won the £20,000 Barbie Prize, the children's equivalent of the Turner Prize last year. Jodie Fraser won the £1,000 individual prize for a matchstick collage on the theme of the 11 September attacks which was shown at the Royal College of Art.

The children involved in Room 13 elect their own leaders, keep the accounts and appoint the artist in residence. The project's managing director, Danielle Souness, aged 11, said that pupils believed that the expression of their individuality was "essential to the wealth and health of the wider community."

Jennifer Cattanach, the headteacher, said: "The self-confidence that children get from what they do there is unbelievable. Kids who struggle in other areas no longer feel failures and they feel able to have a go at difficult areas of the curriculum that they would otherwise decide were hard and boring. Through Room 13 we get to see the whole personality of the child, not just the bit that performs academically."

The degree of autonomy given to pupils will remain in the way they decide to spend the grant.

Nesta was set up in 1998 with £200m of Lottery cash and last February received another £50m, plus £15m a year to spend between now and 2006 fostering "creativity and innovation". It hopes other schools will adopt the Room 13 model.

Its learning director, Gareth Binns, said: "Some may say that supporting a project run entirely by young people is risky. But we feel that it's a risk worth taking as the project leaders have demonstrated a unique vision to complementary learning and have a proven track record of success."

"We look forward to working with them over the next three years and we hope that our funding will enable Room 13 to go from strength to strength."