Primary school pupils from Buckley have been batting away fears that moving up to high school will leave them stumped, thanks to an innovative cricket initiative.

Fifty children from Mountain Lane, Southdown, Westwood and Drury primary schools, aged seven to nine, have been joining in with organised cricket games at Elfed High School to help them learn more about their new school before they take the step up to secondary education. The Buckley primary schools identified cricket as a sport that they would like to develop amongst pupils and came up with the bright idea to boost confidence amongst their leavers at the same time.

Led by the Welsh Assembly Government’s 5x60* programme and the lottery funded Dragon Sport** initiative, the games are led by sixth form volunteers who teach the pupils the key principles of catching, fielding and batting. The aims of the sessions are to encourage children to become more physically active and to experience new activities in a fun and safe learning environment as well as helping to develop the Under 9s section at Buckley Cricket Club.

The sessions, led by 5x60 Officer Gordon Rodger from Flintshire County Council’s Sports Development Unit, were developed in partnership with the England and Wales Cricket Board (EWCB), volunteers from Glyndwr University and Elfed Sixth Form and PE staff.

Gordon said: "The benefits of the project can be seen throughout all the sessions, as the children are being physically active, interacting with children from other schools and broadening their level of sporting competence. Also the experience that the volunteers gain is invaluable and their work is appreciated by the high school staff and the Sports Development Unit."

Alicia Evans, sixth form volunteer, said: "I’ve really enjoyed working with the primary school children. It’s been a new challenge for me and I’m really enjoying gaining experience in working with children."

Adam Wosey, 7, from Mountain Lane school, said: "I’ve really enjoyed playing cricket at the Elfed. I’ve learnt how to bowl, bat and field. The coaches have made the sessions lots of fun."

The 5x60 programme aims to get secondary school pupils in Wales - especially pupils who do not normally participate – to be more active more often. It has proven extremely popular with 99% of North Wales schools offering 34 different activities including dance, dodgeball and cheerleading to more than 10,000 youngsters across the region.

The programme has been championed by Olympic silver medallist David Davies, Stuart Cable and Hip Neu Sgip presenter Alex Jones.

For more information visit the website at www.5x60.org.uk.