An innovative scheme aimed at giving Oxford youngsters with learning disabilities a headstart has been praised.

There is no work experience programme currently provided for Oxfordshire teenagers with learning disabilities.

So teachers at Mabel Prichard Special School, in Littlemore, decided to work with charity and motoring project Trax, in Osney Mead, Oxford, to find a way to provide youngsters with an introduction to the workplace.

Deputy headteacher Kate Schnelling said: "Normally our children never have the opportunity to do work experience because they are so learning disabled. We wanted to give them that opportunity."

The eight-week one-day-a-week course, which is now in its second year, was so successful one 16-year-old student, Shane Butler, from Wood Farm, will start a mechanics course at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, Oxpens Road, in September along with a job two days a week at Trax.

Shane said: "It was brilliant. I'm really pleased to get the job and I'm excited about starting work and college in September."

Mrs Schnelling said: "The children are so disabled physically and mentally it is quite amazing that they have done so well.

"It was a lot of hard work to set up but I'm very glad we did it."

Each year, 10 youngsters, aged between 14 and 16, worked in groups of four to six at the workshop.

In the first year the group dismantled a go-kart and put it back together, while in the second year, students learned how to service a car.

Mrs Schnelling said: "I think it's very important because they need to have skills for coping in the community and know how to get a job, how to apply, and how to behave."

The school was presented with a Schools in Action award awarded by the Thames Valley Partnership, and received £250 - half the cost of providing work experience with Trax.

Any organisations which might be able to offer pupils from Mabel Prichard Special School work experience should call Mrs Schnelling on 01865 775100.