ULVERSTON Leisure Centre has been alive to the sound of boys and girls getting out and enjoying a variety of different sports this week.

The half-term activity camp at the Priory Road facility has seen children from ages five to 12 getting to grips with outdoor sports like cricket and football, along with dodgeball and swimming indoors.

The sporting activities have also been broken up with games of tig and being able to play on inflatables in the tennis centre.

The half-term activity camps, which ran on Monday and Tuesday, and continued today, are a long-established part of the calendar and the leisure centre’s active communities coordinator Hannah Paling tries to ensure those attending have plenty to keep them occupied.

“We try to get a mixture of sports in; dodgeball, cricket, football, and we’ve got the inflatables of a slide and bouncy castle,” said Paling

“The younger ones like different games to the older ones, and we do half an hour of a sport then do something different because we like to change it up a bit.

“Sometimes it’s good to keep them together so the older ones can help the younger ones and the younger ones learn off the older ones, but it’s better to separate them for things like football.”

There were several familiar faces returning from previous half-term camps, along with a new intake eager to try their hand at different sports.

And Paling is in no doubt there are multiple benefits for all children taking part.

“A few come down for tennis and swimming programmes anyway, and a lot have been down to the activity days and football camps, but we do get a lot of new faces down,” said Paling.

“It’s always a good mix of girls and boys wanting to do sport.

“There’s the social side, it keeps them busy, they learn new skills and it gives them a bit of confidence as well.”