Pupils at 82 schools in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear are set to enjoy a range of extracurricular activities from cycling and gymnastics to forest schools, pool clubs and boxercise, as part of a £3million grant from the Opening Schools Facilities Fund (OSF).  

Since the project launched in 2022, Rise, which secured the government grant, has awarded £1.7 million and worked with 68 schools to open up their sports facilities outside of the normal school day and help more communities to get active. 

Francesca Laban, OSF project manager at Rise, explains: “By March 2025 we hope to have worked with at least 82 schools in communities where adults and children will benefit most from new activities to help them to be more physically active.  

 “Every school that has applied to us has its own vision for how the OSF can deliver for them. We’ve received applications to fund a whole host of innovative projects that will play a big part in helping young people access a greater variety of activities during evenings, weekdays, and holidays, particularly those impacted by health, social or economic inequalities living in our most vulnerable communities across Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.” 

Examples of schools to benefit from the fund so far, include: 

The West Tyne Church Schools Federation which represents Greenhead and Henshaw Primary Schools in rural Northumberland. It received £15,000 to open up a woodland area one evening a week to provide a forest school club for pupils and the wider community. The money has enabled the school to buy forest school equipment and pay for a member of staff to train as a forest school practitioner. The funding has also been used to create an afterschool gymnastics club and purchase new football kit and training equipment.    

Jarrow School received £30,000 to invest in virtual reality headsets to provide a boxercise and fitness programme for 14 to 15-year-old girls to tackle a significant drop-in fitness and mental health in the aftermath of Covid-19. The programme will launch in 2024 and is designed to re-engage them by making fitness fun. The school has also used the funding to launch a pool club to help with social interaction and mental health. The club gives students an opportunity to access a sport they are not able to do outside school due to cost and travel issues.  

Battle Hill Primary School in Wallsend has spent £29,500 to extend its Bike4Health scheme. Historically, the school offered cycling skills training to children from year’s three to six, but only children with access to a bike could take part. Now the school has bought enough bikes for all the children to learn. The school is also planning to train more staff as cycling leads to operate cycling clubs before and after school, which will be expanded into the community by providing family cycling days during weekends and school holidays. 

Parkhead Primary School in Gateshead is investing £37,000 to install a BMX bike track on the school field for pupils and the local community to use after school and on weekends. The track is portable and helps children learn to ride bikes and scooters on the yard as well as using the bike track once their confidence has grown. They have also bought balance bikes available for younger children and plan to run sessions for adults and children of all ages, to learn how to ride bikes and scooters in safe environment.  

Mike Glenton, executive head teacher at Henshaw and Greenhead Primary Schools near Hexham, said: “Our two schools at the West Tyne Church Schools Federation have worked with Rise since September on our OSF activities; what a difference it has made this year! We have been able to expand and develop our after-school provision across Forest Schools, football and gymnastics. We are excited about our next steps that will include growing these out of school activities and adding netball to our offer.” 

Chris Bourke, deputy headteacher at Battle Hill Primary School in Wallsend, said: “Since we became aware of the Rise OSF funding, we have been able to plan strategically with our PE lead and headteacher to make sure it has a sustainable impact across our school community.  

“We’ve purchased bikes, shipping containers for storage, helmets and bike maintenance kits to develop a cycling curriculum and enrichment activities. By Christmas, approximately 110 pupils will have completed our Bike4Health programme with children who were considered non-riders now competent cyclists who can ride 7 to 10 miles. 

“By the end of the 23/24 academic year 180 pupils will have participated in the Bike4Health 3-week programme. Without Rise this would not have been possible. We are excited about the future cycling opportunities for our school community and proud of how much we have achieved in a short space of time.” 

Rise is one of 43 Active Partnerships across the country to receive a share of the government’s £57 million ‘Opening School Facilities’ fund to support schools to develop extra-curricular opportunities for children and young people, particularly in communities that experience the most significant health, social and economic inequalities. 

Schools can use the funding to purchase equipment to deliver new or additional clubs, to train employees to obtain qualifications to deliver new or extra activities and to pay for activity deliverers to run them. They can also use funding to open their school swimming pools for pupils, focusing on providing valuable swimming and water safety lessons outside of the school day.