Children go the extra mile raising £700 for their school by completing three windmills challenge

Pupils at the school are all going to be taking part in a whole school walking challenge to raise £5,000 to purchase equipment to develop the playtime experience for the children.

However, Year 1 pupils Phoebe Haydon-Jones and Ava Ramshaw-Nesbitt joined forces with Year 2 pupil Lex Logan to devise their own challenge to raise further funds.

Inspired by the Three Peaks Challenge, they came up with a plan to walk their own three windmills challenge.

On Sunday June 25, the trio were joined by their parents to complete the 7.16km route which started at Fulwell windmill, took in a lunch stop at Cleadon windmill and finished at Whitburn windmill.

Phoebe, six, said: “I loved the walk and there was a really nice view from the top of the windmill. It was my idea to do the walk as I want to help buy some playtime toys for the school.”

Classmate Ava, six, added: “I really enjoyed the walk and found it easy. I wanted to help raise money to get more play equipment for the school.”

The children completed the walk on one of the hottest days of the year so far with temperatures hitting 24 degrees Celsius.

Lex, seven, said: “I found the walk quite tough. It was very hot and we had to eat snacks and drink lots of water.

“The hardest part was a big hill we had to climb to get to one of the windmills.”  

The school are going to be signing up to the Outdoor Play and Learn Programme (OPAL) with funds raised used to provide training of staff and purchase a messy play mud kitchen and equipmet for den building.

Headteacher John Howe said: “This is something the children did off their own back. I was amazed when they told me what they had done and how much they had raised as we didn’t know anything about what they were doing.

“If you wanted a model of all our values and what you would like children to do then this would be it.

“These are some of our youngest children who have shown a selfless attitude to spend their own weekend doing something for the benefit of others.”

Mr Howe was also keen to stress the importance of outdoor play particularly “after the restrictions of Covid”.

He said: “There’s actually a similar time in the curriculum dedicated to outdoor play as there is to maths and English.”

The whole school walking challenge to raise the remaining funds will see the children looking to walk a combined equivalent distance of walking from St Bees in Cumbria to Sunderland.