HALLOWEEN may be over, but celebrations of all things ghoulish were not over for a group of Oxfordshire schoolchildren.

Oxford Brookes University invited 60 Year 10 and 11 children from six county schools to its Gipsy Lane campus yesterday for a Mexican Day of the Dead event.

The event is marked in Mexico on November 2, when Mexicans celebrate the life of their lost loved ones by setting up altars in their memory and visiting their graves.

Pupils from Cheney, Fitzharrys, Henry Box, Matthew Arnold, Oxford Spires and St Birinus schools attended the event, learning new vocabulary relating to the celebration, making paper cuttings and creating their own altars.

Cheney School pupil Finlay Leaver, 16, pictured with Annabel Cossins-Smith, was among those taking part.

He said: “The day has been so different to our usual school day and there has been so much going on.

“We’ve created Mexican crafts by learning about papel picado, built and decorated altars and practised our Spanish throughout.”