EXCLUDED children have been given a new purpose and aspirations with the help of an innovative music project.

Year ten and 11 pupils who have been taken out of mainstream schooling have written, performed and recorded a CD of house music and prose.

The young people attend the Belgrave Street Centre, where they take an alternative curriculum blending key skills with creative studies.

As a result of the project, several of the youngsters are now considering pursuing further education courses.

Seven of them - Fifi, Fitzy, Leon, Stuart, Liam, Sam and Jake - formed the Belgrave Street Snitchers in a project designed to explore their fears, feelings, experiences and dreams.

As part of the initiative they recorded a two-track CD.

The first is a monologue of their thoughts set to music, called This is My Life.

The second - Toy Soldiers - looks at the Iraq war because some of the teenagers have relatives who are in the Armed Forces.

The CD was launched at The Forum, in Borough Road, with the children performing and staging the lighting, sound and effects.

They have also recorded a DVD.

Darlington Borough Council engagement manager Liz Hemingway said: "This project was a bit of a leap of faith but has achieved beyond our wildest dreams.

"From a position where they seemed interested in very little, we now have them thinking about studying media at college.

"It has been about team-building, developing social skills and fulfilling their potential. The transformation in a year has been incredible."

Stuart Ellerton, director of the Northern School of Contemporary Music which has been working with the pupils, said: "This has been one of the most physically, mentally and emotionally challenging projects I have experienced in 20 years as a tutor - but also one of the most rewarding."

Fifi said: "I have found it so much better than normal school and since starting here have really settled down. I'm now hoping to go to Darlington College to study beauty therapy and would love one day to work in New York."

Fitzy said: "I had some problems with the teachers at school and it's much better at Belgrave.

"It's the first time I have done anything like this and while I was nervous about performing, it was a real buzz."