SCHOOLS across Cumbria are gearing up to take part in an event to celebrate the county's diversity.

The Tradcraft 2004 event is being organised by Grasmere CE Primary School and grew out of last year's Paint Race Positively arts festival.

The week is designed to celebrate the different traditions and cultures across Cumbria, and to help children to understand that diversity is not just to do with people of different colours or races.

Tradcraft will include an art competition open to all the county's small schools, which can submit a piece of art either as a group or from an individual, in any medium or size.

Prizes will be awarded which have been donated by local businesses.

In addition, the event has been backed by Arts Council England, and free workshops are being organised across the week, beginning on October 18. Youngsters will be able to take part in activities, including poetry writing, spinning and weaving, and clog dancing.

At the end of the week, on Friday, October 22, an art exhibition at Grasmere Village Hall will showcase all the entries to the competition, and during a ceilidh that evening youngsters will be able to demonstrate the clog dancing and other skills they have learned during the week, alongside the professionals.

Head teacher Lindsey Ferrie said: "We are celebrating our own cultures and traditions and appreciating that from west Cumbria to north Cumbria, traditions will be different and cultures may be different.

"We want to show children you don't have to look to another country to someone of a different colour to learn from a different culture."