East Lancashire schools scoop top spots in most active schools list

An East Lancashire primary school has topped a leaderboard of the most active schools in England, with another in third spot.

Stoneyholme Community Primary School in Burnley clinched the top spot in the WOW Top 10 leader board in June, with Padiham Primary School taking third place.

The challenge, run by charity Living Streets, encourages pupils to walk, wheel, cycle or scoot to school.

Those who live too far away are encouraged to drive to within 10 minutes of their school and then walk.

Padiham Primary School (Image: Google)

Stoneyholme and Padiham overcame competition from 1,180 schools across England to secure their rankings.

Only one per cent of Stoneyholme pupils and two per cent of children from Padiham arrived by car.

In comparison, 41 per cent of five to 10-year-olds in England are normally driven to school.

Jenny Ayres, learning support assistant and WOW champion at Stoneyholme Community Primary School, said: "We are thrilled to be the winners of the WOW Top 10 for the summer term.

"We are very proud of our children for continuing to travel actively to school whenever they can.

"We are also very fortunate to have extremely supportive parents who help their children to engage in this fantastic initiative.

"Our pupils understand the benefits being active has on their mental and physical health. They love taking part and wear their badges with pride.”

Sarah Leyland, teaching assistant and WOW champion at Padiham Primary School, added: "We are delighted to announce that our school achieved third place on the WOW Top 10 leader board this year.

"The children thoroughly enjoy taking part and we have come to realise, that every month our number of active children increases every time.

"We would like to thank everyone who has taken part at Padiham Primary School.

"This is an amazing achievement and the whole school are very proud."