Primary children in Scotland will have the chance to design football strips for an exciting new project connected with London 2012.

Education Scotland has struck up a partnership with an arts project called “Forest Pitch”, the only Scottish contribution to “Artists taking the lead”, which gives UK artists the opportunity to produce work inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic spirit. It will form a major part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and culminating London 2012 festival

Forest Pitch is run by Scottish artist Craig Coulthard and funded by Creative Scotland. He will create a full-size football pitch, hidden in woodland in the Scottish borders. Commercial trees felled to make space for the pitch will be used to create goalposts, a shelter and other infrastructure on site.

In July 2012, two games will be played there - one for men, another for women. The players will be amateurs aged over 18, who are resident in Scotland and have been British residents since 2000.

After the games, the site will be left to grow naturally, with some native species replanted to encourage a diverse environment.

The Forest Pitch competition is inviting pupils to come up with creative designs for the players’ football strips. Four designs will be required - one for each team.

The winning designs will be those which best capture the spirit of the project, and show critical thinking and creativity. Pupils will be able to express their own ideas, thoughts and feelings by exploring the themes of Forest Pitch, then creating their design.

A video-clip of the artist describing Forest Pitch and what he is looking for from pupils’ designs is available, as are the design brief and teacher support materials. The competition will run until 18 December 2011.

www.forestpitch.org.