A MUSEUM based at a state school has become the very first in the UK to gain accreditation.

The Rumble Museum, at Cheney School in Headington, has officially gained full certification from the Arts Council.

Over the past few years, the museum has been growing throughout the secondary school's corridors and classrooms, building up collections of original and replica artefacts.

Greek and Roman coins, lamps and vases, Egyptian papyrus fragments, women's suffrage and wartime items are among those on display, as well as modern pieces such as an iPod.

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Museum director Lorna Robinson said: "We are so thrilled to have been awarded full accreditation for our Rumble Museum.

"It has been five years of hard work, and the process has given us a deepened understanding of the role of museums and object care, and how we can combine this with a secondary school setting.

"It is very exciting to be the first UK school museum to achieve this status, and we look forward to continuing to engage our school and wider communities with the many fascinating objects and displays."

Charity The Iris Project, founded by Dr Robinson, runs the museum and promotes learning about the ancient world.

New projects, displays, events and workshops are driven by student-led museum councils, and the wider public is also able to visit at certain times.

The museum was named after Jamie Rumble, a young man who devoted his life to improving the lives of young people.

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Rupert Moreton, headteacher at Cheney, said: "The Rumble Museum is a fantastic resource through which hundreds of children across Oxford receive a deep learning experience, widen their cultural understanding and huge amounts of joy from.

"It is the envy of many other schools and we at Cheney are very very proud.

"Its creation is down to the immense hard work and dedication of Dr Lorna Robinson, and on behalf of our community and these children, we thank her."

Arts Council England sets out nationally-agreed standards for museums.

Its website explains: "The museum accreditation scheme is the UK industry standard for museums and galleries.

"It tells everyone involved with a museum that they’re doing the right things to help people to engage with collections and protect them for the future.

"The Museum Accreditation scheme does this by making sure museums manage their collections properly, engage with visitors, and are governed appropriately."

This month, the Rumble Museum installed eight six-foot robot models at the school, each designed by a different Cheney pupil to represent a different vision of the future.

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The installation was part of a museum-led event called Iris Festival of the Future, which was due to take place next week with more than 60 different organisations.

Various activities and talks were lined up due to inspire pupils and visitors, but the festival has now been postponed until autumn due to the school closures caused by coronavirus.

Pupils have still been taking part in themed work in the run-up to the day, in what the museum called its Future Season.

They took part in workshops and projects in a range of topics, ranging from memory palaces to artificial intelligence.