Ryan Cole’s first day at school was a little different to the rest of his new classmates - he was on air on the radio show of LBC’s Nick Ferrari.

The four-year-old is being followed by the London radio station as he starts school at Thames View Infants and on the other side of town another boy of the same age is also in the limelight.

The difference is that Ryan is beginning at a state school and the other child is attending a preparatory school in West London.

Radio presenter Nick Ferrari, who does the weekday morning show on LBC 97.3, is running a project to take a look at how the two reception pupils’ experiences compare over the next three months.

They approached Thames View Infants and the head teacher of the Bastable Avenue school, Paul Jordan, put the idea to Ryan’s mum Nicola, whose daughter was already a pupil and son Ryan about to start.

She said: “I am a firm believer that it doesn’t matter if the school is private or a state school, they should be doing the same thing across the board. Kids should be coming out at the same level.”

The radio team interviewed Nicola and Ryan live the week before school commenced, and then visited them on the first day of school.

“At first he didn’t really understand what was going on as when he was on the phone to Nick Ferrari it was just like he wa son the phone to his nan or grandad but when the reporter came along he had to speak into a microphone he realised. He was quite a natural,” she said.

Mr Jordan commented: “It’s lovely because the bigger picture for me is breaking down the barriers and showing we are jsut as good and showing a human face to what schools are about these days.”