A radical education programme that uses classical music to lift children out of the poverty and violence of the barrios in Caracas is beginning to transform the lives of schoolchildren on a notorious housing scheme in Stirling.

In Venezuela, musicians and teachers combine in “El Sistema”, a national network of youth orchestras that embraces 250,000 children, three quarters of whom live in poverty. The talents of many of the finest musicians combine in the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, the sensation of the last Edinburgh Festival.

On the Raploch estate in Stirling, sandwiched between the M9 and the River Forth, a similar scheme is being implemented as a prelude to a national Sistema Scotland project.

Anne Stewart, the headmistress of Raploch Primary School, said her initial scepticism had rapidly evaporated. “The children have been so enthused, more so than I could ever have imagined, and it has been a transforming experience for staff and parents, too,” she said.

“Applicants for the musicians' posts had to come into school and work with classes, and the selection panel took feedback from the children. As potential teachers they could have all the individual ability in the world as musicians, but if they couldn't hold the children spellbound, it wouldn't work for us. That was a groundbreaking way for moving from application to appointment and it was very satisfying for the children,” she added.

From this procedure, six professional musicians — cellists, violinists and viola players — have been recruited and are taking part in an induction course in Venezuela. They will return to host a summer school in Raploch from the end of next month, marking the formal start of the new scheme.

In the meantime, a visit from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has maintained the project's momentum, and inspired creative writing classes and geography lessons about Venezuela. “I liked the cello in the orchestra. I clapped my hands,” wrote one five-year-old. “The orchestra was in the dinner hall and the music made me happy,” wrote another.

Some of Venezuela's most famous musicians have emerged from El Sistema, including the conductor Gustavo Dudamel and Gabriela Montero, a virtuoso pianist. Both will appear at this year's Edinburgh Festival.

José Antonio Abreu, the musician who helped to establish the programme, received yesterday honorary membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London in recognition of his work.

Raploch presents El Sistema with different challenges from the poverty of the barrios, where many children are barefoot and hungry. For their Scottish counterparts, who are used to television and takeaways, motivation will be more of an issue.

“We want the virtuosos to emerge and I've no doubt they can. For us the challenge is to maintain a level of commitment,” Miss Stewart said. She added that any parent of primary-age children would appreciate the scale of the project's ambition. In many Scottish primary schools, provision of music relies heavily on very limited and infrequent visits from instrumentalists and requires a level of commitment from children and parents that few can muster. By contrast, she said “this is an immersion in music and you immediately see the change in attitudes among the children”.

From August, three hours a week of the curriculum will be assigned to music in primary classes 1, 2 and 3 on the Raploch community campus, which comprises three local primary schools, Raploch, Our Lady's Roman Catholic primary school, and Castleview. Over the next five years, Sistema Scotland will be used to create three “Big Noise” orchestras across the country.

The first aim in Raploch is to establish a string orchestra of children up to the age of seven. The orchestra will grow with these children as they move through school and will recruit each year. By the third year the goal is to have introduced all of the instruments of a symphony orchestra - brass, woodwind, strings and percussion.

Richard Holloway, chairman of Sistema Scotland, said: “The experience in Venezuela is that the structure of a symphony orchestra offers the chance for everyone to play their part, be challenged and learn together. It is a core activity which touches the entire community.”

The same principle would be applied in Scotland. “Social skills, confidence, aspiration and drive will be developed. Everyone will be welcomed, accepted and can contribute,” he said.

Times Recommends

• Milk: do we need a dairy godmother?
• DIY: the women doing it for themselves
• First double portrait of Princes unveiled