WIMBORNE schoolkids skipped their usual classes to raise cash for charity.

All 240 pupils at Wimborne County First School congregated in the playground on June 7, 1989, for a fund-raising sponsored skip in aid of British Heart Foundation.

Number one skipper was Rebecca Miller who managed 942 steps to clinch the school record.

Cash totals leapt up in the classrooms afterwards as money poured in from the 4-to-9-year-old kids’ efforts.

Historically, rope was known to have been used for skipping in early China, Phoenicia and ancient Egypt. The ancient Greeks were instead thought to have jumped a pole.

Rope skipping, as we know it today, originated in the Netherlands and spread across the Atlantic in the 1600s.

When the English who governed the Dutch colony on the Hudson River Valley saw America’s first jump-ropers, they thought the pastime silly and a waste of time.

Skipping has since become a form of entertainment for children and a great way to exercise for the health conscious – even here in England.