Corby pupils walk, run, skip and scoot across 'the pond' for pounds

Students staff and carers wanted to fund a youth club on their estate
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Pupils of a Corby primary school have completed a transatlantic fundraising marathon, without leaving their town, to help boost the coffers of a local youth club.

Kingswood Primary Academy's staff, students and families added together daily distances walked, run, skipped, cycled and scootered to reach a collective 5,500km (3418 miles) - the distance from the steeltown to The Big Apple.

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Generous donations totalled £2,140, that meant the money raised is double the target initially set to help the Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre Youth Club, just over the other side of their fence.

Andrew Bark, head of academy, said: "We wanted to ensure that local children have a youth club to return to when lockdown was over.

"For us, it is vital that children have a safe place to develop social and emotional skills in the evenings and weekends in an environment that it is safe to do so.

"We therefore decided to fundraise to support the Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre to ensure that they would have the funds to restart a youth club.

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"To raise money we decided that as a school community we would aim to travel a collective distance - the 5,500km that would equal travelling from Kingswood to New York City."

Kingswood Primary Academy pupilsKingswood Primary Academy pupils
Kingswood Primary Academy pupils

As part of their daily exercise, children and staff - at home and at school - walked, ran, skipped, cycled or scootered every day until the total was reached.

Children and their families shared photos of their efforts while children in school walked around the local area with their classes and completed laps of the playground.

The overall distance was split into chunks with Early Years pupils asked to cover 300km in their bubbles, increasing according to age - Year 6 covered the largest total of 1,000km.

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The week-long fundraising event also incorporated core subjects of Maths and English.

Staff took part tooStaff took part too
Staff took part too

Pupils measured the distance around the playground to calculate the number of laps required to cover a kilometre and stories were written after students had researched New York.

Mr Bark said: "The whole event has been fantastic for many reasons. We have raised over £2,000 for our local area which is amazing, our community has increased its physical activity considerably, and this has also helped bring together a community in very difficult times.

"At Kingswood Primary Academy, we are immensely proud to serve the community that we do.

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"There is a unique sense of togetherness on the Kingswood estate, one where everyone pulls together to support each other in the best way that they can.

Some children used scootersSome children used scooters
Some children used scooters

"Alongside the Kingswood Neighbourhood Centre, we have tried our best to provide food aid, winter coats, Christmas presents as well as general moral support to our community throughout the pandemic.

"Kingswood Neighbourhood centre is continuing this amazing work by providing free daily lunches to local children, regular food parcels, support in claiming money from the 'Covid Winter Grant Scheme' as well as much more.

"I'd like to thank the community at Kingswood and everyone for their generous donations especially from local businesses."

To support the school's fundraising efforts click here to donate to their JustGiving page

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