SCHOOLS are to receive £415million to help pupils benefit from healthier, more active lifestyles.

Primary, secondary and sixth form colleges will be able to use the funding to pay for facilities to support physical education, after-school activities and healthy eating.

Education secretary Justine Greening said the new healthy pupils capital programme will help improve facilities for children with physical conditions or support young people struggling with mental health issues.

It comes two weeks after children in Burnley and Pendle were revealed to be the fattest in Lancashire.

Nearly 38 per cent of year six students in the areas are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school, according to figures from the NHS National Child Measurement Programme.

ally help our children get a healthy start in life from exercise and sport, and also from knowing what a healthy diet means.

Councils and larger multi-academy trusts will receive an allocation for schools and will make decisions locally on how this money is invested.

Smaller multi-academy trusts, individual academies and sixth form centres will be able to bid for grants for specific one-off projects.

The money, from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, will be available to schools in the 2018/2019 financial year and more details on how the fund will be distributed will be published later this year.

The programme is expected to build on the government’s new plans to introduce a longer school day across the country.