One in eight British children now has asthma - more than six times as many as 25 years ago. In the under-11s, the figure is one in four. While debate continues over the causes, the effect on school attendance is apparent, with the condition being responsible for millions of days of lost education every year.

A pilot project that has been running for just over a year in Greater Manchester may provide an answer. Three primary schools in Oldham have been taking part in Bronchial Boogie, which gives asthma sufferers the opportunity to learn wind and brass instruments to improve their lung capacity.

The after-school lessons, which have been combined with asthma education with a school nurse, have produced some remarkable results.

Before the lessons began, 35% of the pupils who took part had to take time off because of asthma. Now the figure is 5%. Previously, 45% of the pupils had difficulty participating in school sports. Now the figure is 15%.

Wendy Andrew, Oldham LEA music service's special projects coordinator, says: "The results have been wonderful. When we got the statistics back after evaluating the project, we just couldn't believe it.

"There are three real benefits from it. First there's the improvement in the pupils' quality of life because their condition has improved. Then there's the knock-on effect on their education because their attendance is better, and third, there's the fact that they are able to learn a musical instrument - something which previously they would have had limited access to."

The project was devised by Wendy Andrew, together with Lynn Daniel from Oldham primary care trust, which supplied nurses to engage in intensive asthma education with the 30 pupils taking part. Teachers are given advice on medication and how to look out for symptoms among pupils. Cash was secured from the Children's Fund to pay for musical instruments and tutors.

"The emphasis is on fun, and we use games and quizzes to increase the pupils' awareness," says Daniel. "It's all aimed at getting the pupils to manage their own condition and to encourage them to use their medication properly. We also constantly measure their peak flow levels to make sure we are having an effect."

Andrew admits that combining the music lessons with asthma education has made it impossible to establish which is having most effect. But she's convinced the instrument tuition is making a real difference. "I know from my own experience as a singer that breathing exercises help to ease the condition," she says. "But there's not been a great deal of research done into it. It's always struck me that breathing exercises have been left behind a bit in the treatment of asthma."

Daniel adds: "Because it's been a two-pronged approach, we don't know whether it's the music that's had an effect, or the education the nurses have provided. I suspect it's a combination of both."

The lessons were hampered by some parents' lack of enthusiasm for having their children practise at home. In fact, parental complaints forced one school to drop out of the project. "We've learned quite a lot," says Andrew. "Right from the start we need the parents to realise that if they want their child to take part it's going to mean the child practising at home with all the attendant noise. We are also looking to see if we can get practise areas set up in the schools."

But for the pupils aged seven to 11 who stayed with the project, the improvements have been impressive. Diaries which the children were asked to fill in at home measured any changes and the results were analysed at the end of the first 12 months. The percentage of pupils for whom breathlessness had been a significant problem was reduced from 50% to 30%, coughing from 75% to 40%, and sleep disturbance from 69% to 40%.

The headteacher at Roundthorn primary school, Joyce Ambrose, says: "We've noticed a real improvement in the children who have taken part in the pilot project and the statistics on absences speak for themselves.

"I've been headteacher here for seven years this Easter and a head since 1990 and we've definitely seen an increase in the number of children suffering from asthma and the number of pupils having to take time off because of that.

"The project is about helping them to be as independent as possible in terms of managing their own condition. One of the other key things is the social aspect of it. The children realise they are not alone in suffering from this problem. There's an element of peer support; they find out there are other children with the same issues.

"At the same time they are learning a new skill which has meant they have been able to do other things that they wouldn't have been able to before, such as performing in assembly for the other children. So it's also been good for their confidence and self-esteem."

Andrew agrees: "In the 1950s, when I went to school, if you had asthma you were always the last one picked in sports events because you couldn't run so you missed out on a lot."

The Children's Fund has recently announced it will continue to pay for the project for another year, which will enable the organisers to extend Bronchial Boogie to another primary school and, for the first time, a secondary school.

"Whether we are able to extend this across the borough is an issue of nurse and tutor resources," says Daniel. But if resources were available, this kind of project could have much wider benefits for pupils with asthma across the country."