Proud parents turned 'patrons of the arts' on Friday when they splashed out on paintings on display at Weston House Academy in Cippenham.

Their interest was not entirely artistic as the paintings had all been done by the 690 pupils at the school in Richards Way.

The children, aged three to 11, had all worked under the eye of the school's art co-ordinator Andrea Langer - with each class studying the style of a different artist.

Monet, Van Gogh, even pop artists like Andy Warhol had had their work analysed before the young students were let loose with the brief to paint a picture on the theme of Summertime.

They even learned about pointilism - the art of creating a picture from hundreds of little dots that the viewer's eye translates into one picture.

Money raised by the sale of the pictures will help buy new reading books for the school - although some will go towards the special paper that pupils needed to work on that would fit nicely into beautiful frames.

It was the first time the school - which has stood on its current site since 2007 - had staged such an elaborate event.

Mrs Langer said: "The day was a great success."