Pupils at Ballakermeen High school enjoyed some novel end-of-term enrichment days when they were visited by two professional skateboarders.

The visitors spent a couple of days at the school teaching youngsters some of the finer points of skateboarding.

Teacher Chris Buttery said: ’I think we are the first school in the Isle of Man to offer this during enrichment week.

’It’s been a great experience for the students.

’About half of them have never been on a skateboard before so it’s something completely different for them.

’And with the popularity of the sport it seemed a great thing to do, particularly as skateboarding is now an Olympic sport.’

The two skateboarders, Tom Wheatley and Liam McKee, are part of a business called Camp Rubicon.

The pair travel around schools and other organisations in the UK offering tuition in using skateboards and scooters.

They were given free passage across to the island courtesy of the Steam Packet.

’It’s a really positive thing for the school and for the students and they were all really positive about doing it. There was a nice sense of ownership and achievement for them,’ Mr Buttery added.

In fact, the children - years seven to nine (aged 12 to 14) - were so enthused by the sessions they ended up going on to the Braddan skate park afterwards and continuing the session there.

’Some were able to improve existing skills and some others were learning about balance and other techniques and doing tricks on the ramps,’ Mr Buttery said.

The school’s enrichment week takes place each year in the final term of the school year when the children choose from around 15 different activities, ranging from trips on the steam railway to computing skills.

’It’s good to offer them something different because not all of them want to do a team sport.

’There were 20 of them and there wasn’t a peep out of any of them,’ Mr Buttery said.