Tower Hamlets kids smash world hopscotch record

Published: 12:27 PM June 8, 2011 Updated: 8:33 AM October 14, 2020

East End kids showed that they had what they needed to become record breakers this week.

Children from four Tower Hamlets primary schools – Marion Richardson, Manorfield, Kobi Nazrul and Our Lady’s – set a new Guinness World Record for the most people playing hopscotch simultaneously at Greenwich’s O2 arena on Monday.

They teamed up with Bupa employees, NHS East London and the City, healthy lifestyle organisation MEND and Tower Hamlets council as part of a worldwide initiative to show the benefits of exercise.

MEND ran sessions on healthy eating during the morning and helped the children warm-up with a series of activities before the world record attempt took place at lunchtime.

A new world record was set when 358 people - 176 children, 20 teachers and 162 Bupa employees - simultaneously played hopscotch for 10 minutes.

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Esther Trenchard-Mabere, said: “Childhood obesity levels in the borough are amongst the highest in the UK so we are always looking for new ways to tackle the social and environmental barriers to children being active, building on our Healthy Borough programme.”

Tower Hamlets council’s children’s director Isobel Cattermole said: “The World Record has been a great opportunity for the children to get active and have fun at the same time. They can all go back home and say they’ve been involved in making a little bit of history.”