AN enterprising headteacher struggling to attract pupils to his school is using bus advertising to get more children on board.

John Hodkinson, who is head of Longshaw County Junior, Blackburn, has bought yards of advertising space on the side of a single-decker bus to promote the school in Park Lee Road.

Blackburn Transport bus number 424, which runs on a variety of services, now boasts the message: "We're a friendly, caring community with extensive grounds . . . come and join us."

And today he hailed it a top-class success.

Mr Hodkinson said: "The school is tucked away behind Blackburn Infirmary.

"People just don't know we're here.

"The governors and I wanted raise our profile and attract more pupils and their parents."

He added: "More children have transferred to Longshaw since it began, although it's difficult to quantify how many exactly have moved due to the advert," he said.

Today, the school has 304 pupils -- 15 more than it had before the summer holidays when Longshaw embarked on its advertising space odyssey.

"Now, the two-month roadshow is being backed by car sticker campaign.

Mr Hodkinson said all schools now taught some form of marketing as part of the curriculum, although usually this took the form of publishing pamphlets.

He wouldn't reveal how much the Longshaw campaign had cost.

"In the end it was the governors' decision to go ahead with this, but I believe spending money in this way can certainly be justified," he added.

"We needed to be more upfront."

Michael Morton, managing director of Blackburn Transport, said he could not recall another school in the area taking ad space on one of his buses. But I sometimes used to advertise the local independent schools when I was working in Blackpool," he recalled.

Art Hannan, sales director with Adbus Ltd in Harrogate, which booked the space for Longshaw Primary and handles contracts countrywide, said: "We sometimes book colleges who want to enrol more students, but I can't recall doing business with a state primary school before. It's very unusual."

He added that a three-month campaign would cost £255.

Mr Hodkinson said: "The youngsters here have started calling it 'our school bus.' It's really worked."

The school still has places for seven-to-11year-olds.