LITTLE children swam up to 200 lengths of a swimming pool in Hamworthy to raise money for improvement works.

Staff at Hamworthy Park Junior School, in Ashmore Crescent, organised the swim-a-thon to get people to sponsor somebody who uses the 40-year-old pool as part of their mission to raise £25,000 to update the facility.

Olivia Sidaway, the school's business manager, said that children and adults both young and old came along to take part in the special fundraiser on Sunday.

She added: "It was such a good event and it went really well. We had a good turnout, which is fantastic. We don't know how much we have raised yet, but we know that one of the children has collected £200 already.

"The six clubs who use the pool came along in the morning and then from 2pm we had just any kids who wanted to swim in the pool. We also had mums using the pool and even grandads using it."

She said that the school can allocate a chunk of the money to go towards the swimming pool's updates, which are planned to include new tiling and new changing rooms, but they need support from Poole Residents to get towards their total. The school is also hoping to apply to Sport England for a grant towards the works.

"The swimming pool was created 40 years and it is special in that it was built by members of the public from the Hamworthy community, who dug it out and raised about half of the money, around £5,000 for it.

"We want to make sure that we can still offer it to our swimming clubs and our over 65 groups, as well as those privately hire it for an hour every week."

Olivia said that an example of this is the family of Rebecca Massarella, who has Down's Syndrom and celebrated her 38 birthday at the swim-a-thon as she and her family have used the pool all her life.

For more information go to Hamworthyparkjuniorschool.co.uk or call 01202 677870