YORK City’s Foundation are delivering healthy lifestyle workshops to 2,000 school children this autumn in a collaboration with club sponsors Benenden.

The 'Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds' programme - designed by Foundation staff - will be delivered around the framework of Benenden’s national campaign: "Eat, Train, Sleep, Repeat."

As part of Benenden’s vision to become the UK’s leading health and well-being mutual community, the organisation educates its members on the importance of understanding what the body needs when it comes to rest, nutrition and activity levels and how this ties in with leading a healthy lifestyle.

In turn, City’s Foundation have adapted these principles to deliver a programme which offers interactive classroom-based sessions and physical activities to primary school children.

On the partnership, Foundation manager Paula Stainton said: “These workshops have been designed following the resounding success of the schools’ outreach programme over the last few years, where we delivered workshops on various subjects including healthy eating and anti-bullying.

"We feel that this latest theme is very topical with more emphasis on young people's mental health and with many young people engaging more and more in gaming and phone-based activities right up until, and even delaying, their bedtimes. Despite many parents fighting the cause, the after-effects of less sleep or broken sleep from this can be evident in the classroom.

“We have had fantastic feedback from previous workshops, both from schools and families, but most importantly from the children themselves about how it has made them think differently.”

Emmie Wise, corporate and social responsibility and engagement co-ordinator at Benenden, added: “At Benenden, we believe that education is one of the key ingredients to improving health, no matter the age of the learner.

"We are so pleased to see the Foundation taking our 'Eat, Train, Sleep, Repeat' campaign into schools and even happier to see the link between physical and mental health so well understood and communicated.”

The programme will also provide a longer-term focus, with children charting their activity for a week after the workshops to win a prize for accumulating the most steps, with Benenden providing all participants with their own pedometer.

Any schools wishing to take up the offer of these free workshops, should contact the Foundation office on 01904 559508 or email community@yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk