Youngsters are taught about healthy choices (From Gazette Series)

Youngsters are taught about healthy choices

3:07pm Monday 28th April 2008 in News By Claire Marshall

SIXTH form students working with a local GP in their spare time have devised a healthy choices game for primary school children with the help of Lottery funding.

A group of Year 13 pupils from Rednock School, Dursley, called Facts4Life, have developed a full sized game for children to learn about diet, alcohol, personal safety and allergies.

They were asked by Dr Hugh Van Toff from May Lane Surgery, in Dursley, to volunteer to help him test out some of his medical theories.

A group of six students decided to give up their spare time to work on the project, for which they received £4,600 in Lottery funding.

They tested out their game for the first time on pupils at Cam Hopton Primary School, who have recently been studying healthy living in lessons.

Ceri-Anne Partridge, a member of the Facts4Life group, said: "We decided the best way to start was to work with children and the best way to get through to them was to use fun.

"The children at Cam Hopton responded really well and at the end they seemed really excited.

"When we asked them to make choices they really thought about it and I think they learnt a lot."

She added: "Through this project we have got to work with some many different people and lots of professionals, so we have learnt a lot from this as well."

The student group hope to take the game to other primary schools and plan to pass the game on to other students at Rednock when they leave.

Catherine Leahy, headteacher at Cam Hopton, said: "We are very excited to be working with the staff and students at Rednock School on this valuable project to support this area of the curriculum."