Ford Castle, near Berwick, will undergo a face-lift, as part of a national project – Shine.

Shine Week 2009 is designed to celebrate the many forms of talent displayed by youngsters and students from Northumberland College, Ashington High School, Ringway First School, and Guidepost Middle School, have been working with multimedia designers to come up with new ideas for the castle, which is used as an outdoor centre.

The imaginative results – which include the creation of living picture frames, Mad Hatter style tea parties with chandeliers made of lollipops, animated characters marching through the walls and a filmed projection of young people describing the battle of Flodden Field – will be unveiled next week.

A team from each school will present their work at a "Dragons' Den" style finale at Ford Castle on July 7 in front of a panel of judges including the Castle's owner Lord Joicey.

It will be followed by a celebration and awards ceremony at Ashington High School.

For the young people, that's just the start of a week of excitement however as representatives from each school will be travelling to London on July 9 to take part in a design challenge at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The project has been instigated by the Design Council as a result of a report which claimed that young people did not have design skills and has been delivered by Creative Partnerships Northumberland, Newcastle and Gateshead, in partnership with Wansbeck Enterprise Education Network.

Philippa Raper, project leader, said: "The work these young people have created in collaboration with their design experts has been absolutely phenomenal and leaves no-one in any doubt that there is a great deal of design talent and imagination in young people.

"It seems absolutely right that this project should come to fruition during Shine Week which is a celebration of young people and their talent."