STUDENTS from Wheatley Park School helped brighten the morning walk of Sandhills Community Primary School children by decorating a subway on the A40 in Oxford.

The once-grotty underpass – labelled “miserable” by teachers – has, with a lick of paint, been transformed into an underwater scene featuring stingrays, sharks, whales and other sealife.

Michaela Milne, 16, was one of the students who painted the pass.

She said: “We wanted to brighten the place up, because little kids from Sandhills have to walk to school through it.

“One of them came to our sixth-form to ask us to do it so we did it as part of our volunteer day.”

Oxfordshire County Council pledged the £20,000 funding required for the project.

Officials say it will help encourage people to use the underpass instead of crossing the A40.