LUCKY city youngsters have been going on their summer holidays thanks to a donation from a community-led charity.

Earlier this year, two young people were given sponsored places on the ATE summer camp programme known as Superweeks, where youngsters ditch the television and video games for good old-fashioned fun.

The £300 places were both paid for by Worcester Round Table after it was approached by Chris Green, a founder of the private firm ATE – Active Training and Education. He said the idea behind the camps was to bring young people together.

“We want to build a system of residential summer camps where children from different backgrounds from across the county can meet each other,” he said.

Buses pick up the children, aged about nine to 13, and then take each group for a week away in rented rural accommodation, which ranges from boarding schools to country homes. “Quite simply they get to go on holiday, which a lot of children do not get the opportunity to do,” Mr Green said.

One of the city pupils who went on his holidays was a nine-year-old boy from Cherry Orchard Primary School, in Timberdine Close, Worcester.

His mother said her son had had a real “confidence boost” from his experience away from home. “I’m a single mum and I couldn’t afford to take him away this year. He really enjoyed it and I so glad we did it.” The youngster, who lives off Bath Road, stayed five days at a country house in Gloucestershire in August, doing outdoor activities, and arts and crafts projects such as mask-making.

Parents were given a presentation by ATE, and if interested, asked to fill out a form. Dozens of youngsters from Cherry Orchard alone go on the holidays paying the full fee, but as Jeremy Harwood the headteacher said, it was important to give everyone a chance to enjoy a holiday.

“This kind of opportunity gives the child a whole range of new insights which helps when they come back to school,” he said. “The ones that have the most to benefit are those who are for one reason or another disadvantaged. These are activities that many might not have been able to have access to before.”

Tim Ward, chairman of the Round Table, said donating money to let children have fun fitted well with the charity’s aims. “Getting kids to leave the video games aside and go and make friends and meet new people is a very worthy cause,” he said. “These summer camps make it possible for dozens of youngsters from across the county to enjoy the great outdoors.”