THEY'VE been framed! And now reproductions of four art classics will soon be on permanent show in three Blackpool high schools.

Limited edition prints of paintings by Peter Blake, Hans Holbein, Joseph Wright and Joseph Turner will hang in Montgomery High, Bispham High and Beacon Hill High schools thanks to Sainsbury's Pictures for Schools scheme.

The scheme, now in its ninth year, donates thousands of reproductions of famous paintings every year to secondary schools across Britain.

The Bispham schools will be presented with their prints by Andrew Coverdale, manager of Sainsbury's Red Bank Road store, Bispham, at special assemblies during the next fortnight. In addition, each school will be given a specially prepared teaching pack including notes, postcards and a BBC video.

A spokeswoman for the scheme said: "A key aim is to inspire both children and their teachers and to encourage an active appreciation of art. The different elements of the gift are intended to help achieve this for children at all levels."

This year's pictures were chosen by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Rector of the Royal College of Art, she said. "He has chosen pictures representing childhood and learning."

She added: "There is no restraint upon the receiving schools, other than they should hang the pictures in main communal areas and maintain them to a high standard."

By the end of its current year, the scheme will have donated 40,000 pictures to more than 8,500 schools throughout the UK, she said.