A SCULPTURE designed by talented young artists to celebrate how great children really are will take pride of place in a village.

Youngsters in Little Lever have designed the artwork as part of their project Little Lever Children Love Little Lever.

Angela Bogle, headteacher of Mytham Primary School, said: "We wanted to place something in the centre of the village to show the community that Little Lever Children on the whole are great young citizens.

"The design incorporates ceramics, wood and metal and has a bird theme. Each coloured bird represents one of the schools and so we have a flock of six different birds to represent cohesion and coming together. There are ceramic handprints on the logs to celebrate the children and ceramic tiles form a plaque in the middle of the path. The plaque represents the values that children support."

Schoolchildren from across the village entered a competition to design the sculpture, with the final design described as a being a 'fusion of some great ideas'.

The project successfully bid for £10,000 National Lottery funding

Twelve talented children from the different village schools worked with artists to create the artwork and also gained the Arts Mark qualification as a result.

The sculpture is currently being assembled and it will be installed next month in land off Market Street and Ainsworth Road. The Little Lever Children Love Little Lever project is bidding for £1,500 of area forum funding money to help with the installation and finalise materials for the sculpture.

The official unveiling will take place in December, hopefully to coincide with the village Christmas light switch on.

Mrs Bogle said: "The children have been involved from the start of the concept of the idea to the final installation. They have collaborated with children from other schools in Little Lever."

Little Lever Children Love Little Lever was started to encourage children in the village to respect and care for their community. The project was chosen after a minority of youths in the village were causing upset with their anti-social behaviour. Headteachers said that these youths were not ‘representative of young children in general” with the majority being ‘responsible, polite, hardworking and kindhearted’.

Mrs Bogle said: "We would like to portray this positive image of Little Lever young people while at the same time encourage children who are currently in our primary schools and vulnerable to being led astray, to think about getting into anti-social behaviour in the future."

As part of the project, pupils worked with police and businesses and put up posters in the village. They also created a film in which they interviewed local people and what makes their community special, as well as finding out why some adults are intimidated by young people.

To watch the film visit www.mytham.bolton.sch.uk/?page_id=3343