Jewellery Quarter-based agency Homer Creative has taken inspiration from famous historical characters to create a website to help boost the brand of a new academy.

The firm is working with Kearsley Academy in Bolton and its sponsors Northern Education on a full range of communications and marketing.

The latest contract has seen it create The Primary Zone website that integrates liaison with primary schools, learning initiatives and marketing using cartoon characters known as the Kearsley Kids.

Each of the five characters are named for someone who has been an innovator in a field of human endeavour.

They are Ada after Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, daughter of the poet, mathematician, analyst and founder of scientific computing, Bert after Albert Einstein, Dot after Doris Lessing, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Sim after Sim Wong Hoo, the chief executive of Creative Technology, first manufacturer of PC sound cards and Ludo after the strategy game Pachisi, played by the Mughal Emperors of India and brought to Britain as the game Ludo.

Each character has key characteristics, favourite subjects and things, hobbies and preferred learning styles.

Homer Creative managing director Brian Homer said he was excited by the collaboration.

“We have worked with many clients in education over the years but this work with Kearsley is something special,” he said.

“It’s a true collaboration and we are working closely with the senior team.

“The idea for the Zone as a primary pupil friendly learning and engagement tool came from Mel Hughes the assistant principal responsible for primary liaison and we developed and named the characters to fit in with that vision.”

Mr Hughes said: “We don’t think that there is anything like it being done at other secondary schools and the idea is already sparking interest amongst primary pupils and we’ve got lots of ideas for how it can be developed.

“We didn’t want this to be just a marketing strategy – the whole idea of the Zone is that it is an integrated approach with the characters and their stories being used in the learning programmes we are running with our partner primaries.”

The characters are already being used by The Primary Zone team of teachers who are working with primary schools and the revised website including the full Primary Zone microsite will go live shortly with some online games and challenges.

After that there are plans for a competition for primary pupils to design a sixth character to be judged by Homer Creative, a drama with pupils playing the part of the characters and a special prospectus using the characters for primary pupils.