HUNDREDS of school pupils are working together in a bid to rid the area of racial tensions.

Students from 11 secondary schools in Burnley and Pendle attended a two-day conference at Turf Moor to learn about how racial tension arises, and how to prevent them.

Lancashire County Council organised the conference primarily for the eight new schools opened under the £250million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

The schools were created by merging 11 existing secondary schools, changing the ratio of different ethnic heritage students.

In Blackburn with Darwen, the £150million BSF scheme is still being planned, and is currently subject to informal consultation.

Councillor Chris Thayne, executive member for children's services, said: "We are committed to keeping the current balance of faith and community school provision in the future.

"Many schools already share expertise and facilities and BSF will give them new opportunities to work together so that children from all faiths and social backgrounds can learn and socialise with each other."

But in Burnley, Denise Dent, project manager for the conference, said: "BSF has meant quite a lot of difficulty for people having to move to different schools, and buildings all over the place "It's been a big process for students and staff, and the conference is part of a bigger project to help pupils and teachers with the transition, work towards community cohesion and break down barriers within school communities.

"We held a conference for staff in January on the subject, and it was clear that it was just as important, if not more so, to have one for the children.

"Primarily this focused on BSF, but the three other Colne high schools were also involved because it's a region-wide issue."

The conference was called "Me and Thee, Hum and Aamra: Identity and Belonging in East Lancashire".

20 Year 9 students from each of the schools took part in a series of workshops involving teamwork, art, music and drama. Older pupils from Burnley Schools Sixth Form worked as volunteers to help run the event.

Pupils explored the idea of identity, how it is formed collectively - through belonging to a school, religion, or a football team - and individually, and how we make assumptions based on somebody's religion or gender.

Howard Hughes, deputy head and racial equality officer at the BSF Pendle Vale College, said: "While most schools get on fine, there are racial tensions, and we need to tackle them and bring them out into the open.

"The racial ratio is changing in schools - we used to have 35 per cent of Asian heritage pupils, but next year's new intake will be 50-50.

"The transition for Pendle Vale was a smooth one, but it hasn't been so smooth for all BSF schools."