More than 500 schools are now signed up to the Energy Club, an extra-curricular physical activity scheme for children aged from four to 11. It is free for all schools across England and comes in the form of a before and after school club.
Funded by the government's Cabinet Office through the Social Action Fund, it was launched in October last year and is run by Sports Leaders UK, a national sports leadership organisation.
The programme sees 30-minute sessions run by volunteers, including parents and friends, before and after school. Schools involved can also access a range of literature and online resources to use with pupils. A range of Energy Club videos are available on YouTube.
St Stephen's School in Cornwall was the 500th school to sign up and PE co-ordinator Tracey Brandon is excited about the potential. She said: “We decided to get involved after reading about the initiative and anything to get children more active and knowledgeable about healthy living is great by our books. Everyone here at St Stephen's can't wait to get going and more than anyone, I think the children are going to absolutely love it."
Current statistics show that 23.1 per cent of four and five-year olds are overweight or obese as they enter primary school, rising to 33.3 per cent as the children reach 10 and 11 when they leave.
Louise Plowright, CEO of Sports Leaders UK, added: “This is about communities taking social action and I urge anyone interested in signing up their school, or who wants to know how they can train to become a volunteer, to visit our website and fill in their contact details. This is an exciting time to help get our kids and their families' active after the success of London 2012 and we want as many people as possible to be involved."
Anyone interested in registering their school or registering to be a volunteer for Energy Club should go online.
• Visit www.energyclubuk.org or via Twitter @EnergyClubUK. The YouTube channel is at www.youtube.com/user/energyclubuk.