Lego is a teaching tool in Middlesbrough classroom

It has been a favourite through the generations as a toy, and now Lego is being used by teachers in some of our schools.

Research has shown that it helps to engage children in subjects like maths and science, and may even lead them onto careers like engineering.

At Ayresome Primary school in Middlesbrough Lego is being used to teach children as soon as they start school.

The plan to get them engaged in all subjects. These five year olds have been using it to learn about London.

They have been building Big Ben and 'the Queen's palace', even the London Eye.

It's maybe not as rigorous as learning reading, writing, arithmetic, but the Lisa Biggin, the school's head teacher maintains not all children learn in a very structured way.

She says children have very very different learning skills and it allows them to apply their skills in a very different collaborative way to traditionally sitting at a desk with a pen and pencil.

Lego is also being used to break down gender divides which in recent years have seen fewer girls taking science and maths and fewer boys taking arts and creative subjects.

This is the first school in the North East to use Lego in its daily curriculum, although it is now being used in thousands of schools across the world.

Watch Frances Read's full report below: