Children in Mansfield are receiving a mental health boost thanks to a project delivered by Nottingham youth charity Switch Up.

The Youth Endowment-funded early intervention project has seen 80 children from Mansfield Primary Academy work with mentors at Switch Up to complete various teambuilding and wellbeing exercises — with the aim of tackling the negative effects of coronavirus lockdown.

Three-quarters of participants saw more reasons to avoid getting into trouble than before and more than half reported that they are now exercising more because of the programme.

More than 50% of the pupils said that they are now enjoying learning and are actively completing their schoolwork on time.

Marcellus Baz, founder and chief executive of Switch Up and its sister organisation, Nottingham School of Boxing, said: “Lockdown has been immensely disruptive to the development of children from deprived communities.

“School is a support structure and, without it, their mental health can deteriorate or they can even fall into bad habits and behaviours.”

The year-long project started at the beginning of the 2020 summer holiday with children in year five and six of Mansfield Primary Academy and also at Seeley Primary School, Nottingham.

The intervention project was funded by a grant from the Youth Endowment Fund, a national charitable organisation that is run by Impetus, in partnership with Early Intervention Foundation and Social Investment Business.