One of Bristol's new academies has launched an innovative project to strengthen links with feeder primary schools and the local community.

The Oasis Academy Bristol, in Hengrove, has started an Oasis Juniors Club for children from neighbouring primary schools.

The club is the first of its kind in the country. Following a successful pilot scheme at the Hengrove school, Oasis Juniors will be extended to Oasis's other eight academies across the country, including the Oasis Brightstowe Academy in Shirehampton.

The club is open to children aged eight to 11, who can enjoy a range of sporting and arts-based activities.

Oasis Academy Bristol, which opened in September, has a visual and performing arts specialism.

Art classes for pupils and parents, and music and dance sessions, are organised by the school's community arts manager Rebecca Fitzgerald.

The club is also planning fun sessions linked to other subjects such as creative writing, literacy, science experiments and observational skills in future.

Deputy principal Andy Vinton is leading a team to develop the Oasis Juniors concept, which builds on the predecessor Hengrove comprehensive's extended schools outreach work.

He said: "The Oasis Juniors Club provides an excellent opportunity to engage with the local community and a framework to promote the wonderful education that is available locally at Oasis Academy Bristol.

"The Oasis Juniors after-school masterclasses are proving to be a real success and the feedback from the students and their parents has been very positive."

The primary schools involved include New Oak, Perry Court, Knowle Park, Bridge Farm and Whitchurch.

Each of them has been visited by an Oasis Juniors taster roadshow and already more than 70 children have been signed up.

The club held an official launch event last night, attended by more than two dozen children who worked on making colourful masks and playing dodgeball – a game where two teams try to catch or avoid being hit by balls thrown by the opposition – and football.

All children attending the Oasis Juniors Club receive a welcome pack containing an Oasis Juniors T-shirt, an A3 calendar of all future Oasis Juniors events and details of holiday activity programmes, parent coffee mornings, after-school clubs and fun-days.

A spokesman for Oasis, the Christian charity which sponsors the academy, said: "Oasis Juniors is intended to foster an attachment to the academy in primary schoolchildren and establish early links with their families.

"By concentrating on building links with feeder primary schoolchildren, Oasis Juniors will play an important role in tackling the problem of the outward migration of Bristol schoolchildren travelling outside the city for their secondary education."