THE pavements of Headington could become covered in drawings by schoolchildren this weekend.

Oxford Brookes University mature student Jean Wykes is calling for residents to take to the streets and decorate the footways on Saturday along Headington Road and London Road.

She has organised the event as part of the Big Draw, a global arts festival taking place throughout this month, under the theme ‘It’s Our World’.

Ms Wykes, of Kennett Road, said: “I’ve invited all the schools in Headington to join in with the events we are running for the Big Draw, and everyone is invited to help us chalk the streets.

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“We want to do it between where the university campus is and the town centre.

“To make things simple we are suggesting young people draw their route to school or college, but it will still be open to myriad interpretations. They could draw anybody they meet or anything they see along the route.”

The chalk-up will start at 9.30am and run until 3.30pm, said contemporary fine art student Ms Wykes, a mother-of-three and a retired primary school teacher.

She added: “I am very passionate about drawing and I hope the world and its wife will come down on Saturday.

“Drawing is still very important, because it is the basis of all intellectual development. It helps children to shape their recognition for things like letters and symbols and that helps with everything.

“Humans instinctively try to draw, right back from the cave men. If everyone did it more often we would all feel a lot more satisfied.”

Oxford Christian School art teacher Naomi Goldsmith said she had been working with Ms Wykes to promote the Big Draw.

She said: “We want to include as many children as possible from the community. The Big Draw is a great way for people to get into drawing, which is so important for young people.

To advertise the event, which will also take place on Saturday, October 25, Ms Wykes has placed coloured bicycles around Headington.

The drawings will be uploaded to the Big Draw website afterwards and Barclays Bank has agreed to display some of them in its Headington branch for half term.

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