A KEIGHLEY social enterprise company is staging summer camps to help youngsters make the transition from primary to secondary school.

The fortnight-long non-residential courses are being held at five West Yorkshire secondary schools, including Oakbank in Keighley.

Sessions are open to children from all feeder primaries.

Behind the initiative is Evolve, based at Central Hall in Alice Street.

Specially-trained mentors from the organisation, who already work with children at four Keighley primary schools to improve their physical health and emotional wellbeing, are running the courses.

The aim is to help youngsters feel more positive about the often daunting move to upper school.

"The step up to secondary school is a massive thing and probably the biggest change they've had to face," said Paul Bilston, Evolve's regional manager.

"Most of the children attending the courses will already be familiar with Evolve mentors from their primary school, and we try to build on that to really get them ready for secondary.

"They might arrive on the first day not knowing each other, but they bond very quickly and form friendship groups.

"We take every opportunity to promote the health and wellbeing message by speaking to students during lunch breaks and doing things to incentivise them to eat more healthily. There's also usually a daily discussion topic relating to health."

He said the camps include some writing as part of fun-themed activities to enable the children to use skills learned in primary school.

"We consciously use un-school-like activities, but students might write out or draw a plan of action as part of an exercise, which utilises the fine motor skills they might not use at home during the holidays," he added.

"Secondary schools see the benefit because there's a consistent level of academic achievement through the summer. And pupils don't feel they're going back into the classroom after a very long break, which also helps their confidence."

The course at Oakbank, in Oakworth Road, begins next week.

Manny Delgado, the school's progress leader for year seven and transition, said: "Students who attend these camps find transition easier and often improve their average level of progress during the academic year.

"The camps equip students with more self-esteem and increased confidence in the next stage of their learning, and give them opportunities to make new friends before September."

Evolve health mentors are currently deployed in 24 primary schools across Yorkshire.

The company is a founding member of ukactive kids and, last month, Evolve directors John Bishop and Graham Morgan attended the launch of the Generation Inactive report, which revealed less than half of primary schools are recording time spent being physically active.

Mr Morgan said: "We welcome the focus now being given by ukactive to help combat children's inactivity in the digital age.

"Through our own in-school programmes, we've been working on using physical engagement, active learning and pupil mentoring to improve education outcomes in schools nationally, and are happy the issue of child inactivity in schools is now coming to the fore."

Visit evolvesi.co.uk for more details.