A SPECTACULAR night of dance, drama, videos and art brought the end of a jam-packed summer to a close for children in Blackbird Leys.

Throughout August more than 150 children from the estate took part in a range of creative projects courtesy of the Leys Community Development Initiative (CDI).

This year the organisation comes of age and 21 years after it was first founded, youth project development manager Marsha Jackson said there was plenty more in store.

She said: "We will get bigger and better, and we will raise the bar high. All I can say is watch this space."

On Friday hundreds of friends and family gathered in the Glow Hall at Blackbird Leys Community Centre for end-of-term performances, films and a fashion show.

Volunteers and staff at the CDI are now taking a breather after four weeks of mayhem including technology courses, swimming, day trips and music workshops.

Notably scores of teens took part in a new mural project, painting over the three-year-old Leys CDI mural inside the Glow Hall with a new design incorporating the personalities of their new members. It took weeks to complete and features hand-painted portraits of youngsters overlooking the globe.

Miss Jackson said: "It looks really beautiful. As more young people come it's their characters on the wall so every three years we upgrade it to show the new faces.

"Some of them want to be doctors and some want to be lawyers; it's a 'believe and achieve' wall and they helped out from the beginning to the end."

In 2014 the CDI was granted £499,078 of Big Lottery funding and has two more years to deliver a programme called Vision Transition, which will see young people organise non-academic activities including music, dance, art and film sessions to develop their careers.

Since then the first young people who previously attended the CDI as children have taken on paid roles as youth workers at the CDI.

Among them is Kyron Anthony, 19, of Pippitt Close, who began aged four and returned from studying dance at the University of London to work in the Leys this summer.

He said: "It's good to be back. The event was very good; we just need to keep the positivity going and make sure that new young people are welcome."

Parent Bimla Damney-Harry, of Botley, saw all four of her children - who have family in Blackbird Leys - head to the CDI for the first time this summer.

She said: "It was brilliant. It's amazing the sort of things they do there. It makes a nice change because it's somewhere they can do all sorts and the options are fantastic."