SCHOOLS across East Lancashire will this week celebrate a scheme which teachers are heralding as a perfect lesson in how to help the region's pupils, from the gifted and talented to the disaffected.

The Excellence in Cities project was launched last year in a bid to raise standards in primary and secondary schools.

It attracts government funding to set up initiatives like gifted and talented programmes and learning support units for youngsters who are struggling in the classroom.

Councillor Mahfooz Hussain, the executive member for education and lifelong learning at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said he hoped the week would raise awareness of the success of the programme

"Excellence in Cities is having a positive impact and raising standards and expectations for young people.

"The programme is successfully focusing on the needs and aspirations of individual pupils and their parents," he said.

Ian Kendrick, assistant director, school improvement, added: "The range of activities taking place reflects the learning opportunities and achievements our young people gain through things like support units and mentors, state-of-the-art technology, specialist colleges and not least projects for the gifted and talented."

Pleckgate High School headteacher Heather Jamison, said: "Excellence in Cities is one of the most exciting initiatives to arrive in schools for a number of years and offers us the opportunity to address areas where resourcing and staffing have not been available before."

Pleckgate is planning to launch a project involving a theatre-in-education company whose members will work with disaffected young people.

Other projects will include a Science in Sport day when students will work with experts in different health and fitness disciplines. It is hoped their findings will be collated into an advice booklet for people involved in the Blackburn Rovers Football in the Community Programme.

Meanwhile, Witton Park High School is launching a Families and Higher Education Decision-making project in conjunction with the University of Lancaster. This is aimed at families of pupils in Years 10 and 11 and includes a short course for parents about the implications of their child going to university.

In Burnley and Pendle, schools benefit from working in one of the Government's Excellence Clusters.

The scheme has been up-and-running for a year and was recently praised by Whitehall as a "model of good practice."