London mayor Boris Johnson and Sebastian Coe, the chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG), have called on schools to apply for tickets to next summer's Games.

Schools are being invited to submit their bids for Olympic and Paralympic tickets as part of the London 2012 Get Set education network. The deadline is 16 December. Around 125,000 tickets have been made available to London schoolchildren, with a further 50,000 on offer to schools across the UK.

Coe said: "Schools and colleges across London and the UK have a golden opportunity to give some of their pupils the chance of a lifetime - tickets to see the greatest show on earth."