PUPILS from a Kent school went head-to-head today with some of the UK’s leading MPs in a mass ‘skip-off’ at Westminster.

The Secretary of State for Education Ed Balls and Gillingham MP Paul Clarke are among the MPs expected to be skipping against pupils from All Faiths’ Children's Community School in Gun Lane, Strood, as part of a national campaign to encourage children to get fit.

Twenty-six pupils took part in the Skip2Bfit challenge with everyone taking part asked to skip for two minutes.

The event was organised by former boxer and Skip2Bfit pioneer John McCormack, supermarket chain Sainsbury’s and All Faiths’ School Headteacher Heidi Taylor.

Medway was the first authority in the country to pilot the skipping scheme in school and Zoe Barkham, the council’s Healthy Schools Manager, hopes the event will encourage more schools to take up the sport.

She said: “Skipping is often seen as a girls’ activity, so it’s encouraging for boys to see a burly ex-boxer skipping.

“The children really enjoy the skipping lessons and it is an inexpensive way to get them to exercise, whilst working their mind at the same time.

"We have also found that children who do mental arithmetic lessons after skipping are more alert than those who haven’t.”