After a tough year, Yew Tree Primary School in Dukinfield has been fortunate enough to have its playground trail updated.

Everyone at the school, part of Victorious Academies Trust, is really impressed with the new piece of equipment and the pupils love accessing it during both their break and lunch times.

Craig Birch, one of the PE coordinators said: “At Yew Tree we love to be active! It’s lovely to see the children enjoying their break time, especially after activity levels dropped for some families during the pandemic.

“Exercise has such huge benefits for both the children’s physical and mental health, so it’s really important to us that we make the most of every opportunity to encourage healthy, active lifestyles.

“Our new playground apparatus really excites the children and has added a new dynamic to break and lunchtimes.”

Some pupils were also very excited by the new equipment.

Keira said: “It’s quite long so you get a lot of time to play on it, and it has lots of different parts so it doesn’t get boring.”

Ruby said: “I like all the obstacles because they’re fun and it’s exciting trying not to fall off it. You have to have good balance.”

Haleema said: “I like how it swings, it feels good. I like  climbing. It gives us something else to do at break time and I like exercising.”

Assistant headteacher, Helen Fletcher said: “Lockdown has meant staying indoors for many people, but as restrictions begin to ease and the weather improves, we are looking at more activities we can do outside.

“We now have a gardening club which has recently started up and we are working in partnership with Morrisons on growing our own sunflowers.

“In the future we hope to have our forest area developed as an additional learning environment.”

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