A pioneering charity based at Oxford School called The Art Room has succeeded in using art to help children with problems settling at school. A new book called The Art Room (Frances Lincoln, £11.99), to be published next month, presents 12 projects encapsulating some of the charity’s ideas. They range from portrait plates to a button snowman and bottle people, made from cheap or unwanted materials.

There is a priceless copy, for example, of a portrait of Elias Ashmole, founder of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The original was carved in lime by Grinling Gibbons, while the Art Room frame was bought in a charity shop and decorated with recycled items, then sprayed gold.

The book is beautifully illustrated and there is advice on how to organise and collect the materials needed. It was compiled by two Oxford authors — the Art Room’s founder, Juli Beattie, and Arabella Warner, who has made several videos with children from the Art Room.