Gill Oliver talks to the founder of The Art Room, a charity with a rather high-profile patron

She arrived in Britain as a child refugee who was unable to speak English, so Juli Beattie knows exactly how it feels to have no voice.

It is this empathy with youngsters for whom education is not straightforward, that inspired her to start Oxford-based children’s charity The Art Room.

Since its tentative beginnings in Oxford School, now Oxford Spires Academy, 11 years ago, her vision has grown into a thriving organisation with six centres that help hundreds of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

When they came to the UK from Hungary, she and her parents were welcomed but Juli’s situation sparked a long interest in communication and learning.

She explained: “I knew I wasn’t stupid but also knew I didn’t have the language.

“At The Art Room, we can reach children that mainstream schools can’t.

“It is about turning education on its head so that anybody has access to it.”

The five- to 16-year-olds who come to The Art Room are listened to and encouraged to express sadness or anger through creative projects.

At the heart of the whole concept is the idea of taking something useless or broken and transforming it into something beautiful.

A ruined tennis racket with no strings becomes a puppet, a battered violin morphs into a work of art and an ugly old chair is painted to make a funky piece of furniture that belongs to the youngster who worked on it.

Sessions follow a set formula, where children are encouraged to talk about their week, sit around a table together for fruit juice and toast and are given plenty of space and time for art and craft, whether that is making mosaics, puppet theatres or whatever is the project on the go at the time.

“We teach life skills here and at The Art Room they are learning continuously,” Juli added.

“First and foremost, we are raising their self-esteem and confidence because if you feel better about yourself, you can think about your future.

“We’ve had children who have enjoyed mosaic work here and gone on to become tilers or decorators.

“Others have been inspired to do art foundation courses.”

As for the ritual of offering a drink and snack, Juli sees that as a vital part of the experience.

“If someone comes to my home, I offer them a cup of tea and a biscuit.

“I do that for a friend, so why wouldn’t I do it for the youngsters?

“It’s respectful and like a warm handshake because it’s so nice to sit at a table with juice and toast.”

The atmosphere is deliberately tranquil and ordered, at the end of each session the children help to put everything back, and she describes it as a “safe place”.

They have had children who refused to work together because of cultural differences but after a week will happily sit and paint together.

The key is in the dedication and experience of the staff.

“It is all-consuming and I am passionate about what I do,” Juli said.

“But I am incredibly lucky that I work with a group of colleagues who are like-minded and very supportive of everything we are doing.”

Juli has more than 35 years’ experience in education and therapy, including working with terminally-ill children at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

She and architect husband Simon Beattie, moved to Oxford when their children, now in their late 20s and 30s, were young.

Her passion, apart from education is art and she enjoys visiting art galleries and museums in her spare time.

Despite the fact that almost every charity in Britain wanted Kate Middleton, aka the Duchess of Cambridge, as a patron, The Art Room was one of the chosen few.

Far from having some special connection or contact with the Palace, this coup came about in a remarkably down-to-earth way.

Juli said: “We wrote a letter to the Duchess and sent it off.

“It did land on her desk but we learned later she had already read about The Art Room, as she’s a very independent woman who does her own research.

“We were invited to the palace where we met one of her secretaries who asked us more about the charity.

“We thought if we got her it would be fantastic, as she is somebody who clearly has an interest in art, education and family.

“After the interview, the Duchess joined us for a private, unofficial session at The Art Room where we had the usual mix of breakfast, story, discussions and art.

“She talked to the children who called her ‘Miss Katherine’ and stayed for a whole two-hour session.

“The Art Room is an incredibly welcoming place, so I hope we treated her with the same respect we’d treat anybody who came here.”

A few weeks later, they heard the Duchess would be happy to be their patron and she has since visited The Art Room sessions at Rose Hill Primary and Oxford Spires.

The standard of the work produced is impressive and tends to be centred on themes such as Henry VIII, Greek mythology or Charles Dickens, so that the children are learning about history or literature or the wider curriculum.

Much of the material they use is recycled or donated by well-wishers, including multiple boxes of buttons and beads from a local company.

Meanwhile, the charity continues to expand, with centres in London and another planned for Edinburgh.

But its roots remain firmly in the city of dreaming spires.

“When I started thinking about setting up The Art Room, I had no money but a fantastic group of local friends and contacts who supported the idea and found trustees. “It’s Oxfordshire people, including ladies from Cowley Road who donate £10 a year, who have enabled us to achieve this.

“We are very much a local charity that has gone national.

“We have something that works and want to offer it to many more children nationally.

“As one headteacher said to me recently, ‘every school should have one’.”