Schoolchildren traded in textbooks for rubbish sacks to launch a new cleaner estate campaign.

Answering the call from Blackbird Leys Parish Council, pupils from Pegasus Primary and Windale Primary Schools helped launch the Keep Blackbird Leys Tidy campaign on Monday.

Around 12 sacks of rubbish were filled with crisp packets, bottles and bags, a wash basin pedestal, five dinner plates and a syringe.

Yellow badges were handed out to the children and both schools were rewarded with certificates for taking part on the first day of the initiative.

The parish council hopes that by encouraging young children to keep Blackbird Leys free of rubbish they will grow up not to be litter-bugs. There are now plans to involve other schools in the area.

Bob Avery, vice-chairman of Blackbird Leys Parish Council, said: "The idea is to make people aware of keeping the place clean and tidy.

"With the recycling programme Oxford City Council is going to adopt later in the year, we felt it would be a good start getting people into the habit of picking up litter.

"We know children are always the best prophets of change, they are the next generation and look at things in a way that adults fail to."

Council refuse workers met the children and taught them how to pick up litter safely.

Windale Primary School students will continue to litter pick throughout the year as part of a project.

Headteacher Maureen Thompson said: "Our school is at the end of a wind tunnel and an awful lot of rubbish gets blown in.

"The children get quite aggrieved with people outside the school not putting things in bins.

"You cannot win the fight for the future without investing in the future. These children will be the estate's grown-ups one day."

Pegasus Primary School headteacher Jill Hudson said: "At the end of the school day the children were outside picking up any stray litter, so woe betide anyone dropping litter outside Pegasus School."

The Keep Blackbird Leys Tidy campaign follows a spate of fly-tipping incidents and dumped rubbish on the estate.

During the Christmas period, rubbish sacks were left rotting in the streets for two weeks, attracting dogs and rats, prompting calls for wheelie bins to be introduced.

In October, two skips and 50 sacks of rubbish were removed following a litter pick in Falcon Close, and in July 80 tonnes of rubbish was cleared from Northfield Brook.

The parish council also provides bin bags for residents who want to clear up rubbish.