CHILDREN are being inspired to stay active during the lockdown by a school support group, thanks to a grant from the Wiltshire Community Foundation.

Studley Green Primary School PTA has been given £2,000 from the community foundation’s Coronavirus Response Fund to buy sports activity packs for almost 50 children who would have been taking part in the Fit and Fed programme during the Easter and summer holidays.

The community foundation’s fund has now raised more than £890,000 and distributed £560,000 to more than 150 groups so far.

The school’s PTA works in partnership with Wiltshire Council, Selwood Housing Group, Anybody Can Cook and Active Trowbridge to run the Fit and Fed programme, which usually involves families identified by the school taking part in sessions to prepare, cook and eat healthy meals before taking part in games and sports. It is aimed at ensuring children who receive free school meals are getting healthy food over the school holidays.

But, said, Wiltshire Council Sports Development Officer Karlene Jammeh, the lockdown has meant the programmes couldn’t run. Instead the school has been delivering food parcels to families and she and her colleagues have made up packs full of sports equipment to encourage families to play together.

She said: “The activity packs have multi-sports equipment including footballs, smaller balls and tennis balls, lots of hand-to-eye co-ordination equipment like rackets and skipping ropes.

“We printed out activity sheets with lots of ideas of what to do with the equipment with fun games, assault courses and circuits to do with their families as well. We have sent out 48 so we hope they will really inspire the families to get active.”

The packs, which have been designed to take account of the fact some children won’t have access to a garden, will delivered over the coming days. “It’s great that we’ve had the funding from the community foundation,” said Mrs Jemmah. “We want to make a positive impact with the whole family and to encourage them to make a lifestyle change.

“We want the children to make positive choices that will last their whole lives. We want to them to start making those good choices in terms of healthy eating and physical activity when they are young to give them a lifelong healthy lifestyle.

“It was frustrating to have the link with the families in all our programmes broken by the lockdown.” We’d built up such a good rapport with all our participants and for a lot of them we have put in alternative offers but for Fit and Fed it was hard to know what to do.

Hopefully this will be something to inspire them and they can keep these packs and get some good use out of them.”

Fiona Oliver, interim co-chief executive of Wiltshire Community Foundation, said: “We are so thankful for the donations we’ve received and proud that we have used them to fund so many inspiring groups responding to the need in their communities. But we are still receiving many applications and it is clear that the demand for funding as a result of the coronavirus and subsequent lockdown is going to continue for some time to come.”

To donate to the Wiltshire and Swindon Coronavirus Response Fund or to find out how to apply for a grant, go to wiltshirecf.org.uk.