Sport Relief: Portsmouth pupils given Ineos Team UK tour after scooting more than 3 miles along Southsea seafront

Six sporty Year 2 pupils from Cumberland Infant School in Eastney scooted more than three miles along the beach from Eastney Swimming Pool to the Ineos Team UK building in Old Portsmouth.

Aidana Gawthorpe, Anabelle Day, Eeva Stafford, Iris Savage, Kacy Turner and Katie Trafford took on the windy challenge in an hour and a half, stopping halfway for a free hot chocolate and a rest at The Briny on the seafront.

They were joined by parents who ran and scooted along to keep up, and the group hope to have raised more than £500 for Sport Relief to tackle poverty and injustice.

Proud dad Pete Gawthorpe said: ‘Even if it was £20, it goes some way to doing something, they had a lot of fun and were so excited about it. We all got there in the end.’

Despite a couple of technical issues with scooters, which were quickly fixed by parents, the group had lots of fun and were very excited to take on their charity challenge.

Parent Lisa Gumbrill, who scooted alongside the group, said: ‘It was just really good. I think a lot of us thought we would be dragging them all along but I had to go and grab my scooter halfway through.’

Pete got in touch with Ineos when they were planning the challenge, and the team’s official charity the 1851 Trust was keen to be involved and offered an interactive tour for the whole class, who were all in sports kit for Sport Relief.

Michele Ingerslev, educator for the 1851 Trust, said: ‘We wanted to support the girls doing the challenge and also inspire them with putting STEM into the context of the British challenge to the America’s Cup.

‘They have been really interested, handling some of the cutting edge materials and having a go at our speed versus control game.’

Several of the pupils dressed up to pretend to be the sailors on board the boat, before building a boat and strength testing it in groups.