A cash grant from Watson Buckle is helping pupils at a Bradford school learn archery as part of an Olympic Legacy project.

Horton Park Primary School have received a grant of £660 from the Watson Buckle Foundation – which was set up following the 2012 Olympics to fund legacy projects – in order to purchase an archery curtain.

The archery curtain helps stop stray arrows and is an essential health and safety requirement for the school’s indoor shooting range in its main hall.

The school applied for the grant as it is looking to introduce the olympic sport into the school’s curriculum for years 4, 5 and 6, as well as setting up an archery club within the school. Horton Park is also hoping to set up an inter-schools archery competition, while it also plans to link up with higher-level coaches to support talented archers.

Mark Parry, outdoor education and extended learning coordinator at Horton Park, said archery has real benefits to pupils both physically and academically. He said: “Through archery, pupils will gain health benefits including strength, endurance and hand-eye coordination. Archery also requires a great deal of focus, so pupils will learn how to improve their concentration, slow down their breathing and overcome distraction.

“As well as the physical benefits, pupils will also be introduced to numeracy through scoring, setting up the range, literacy, the history of archery, geography and science where we look at things like forces, stresses and strains and friction. We call it “back-door learning”, where we introduce little learning tasks through the sport which sticks in the pupils’ minds.

“We really appreciate the support of the Watson Buckle Foundation to help this project get off the ground, and you never know, we may produce our own olympic archery champion one day.”

Susan Sedgwick, managing partner at Watson Buckle, said: “We were delighted to accept the application from Horton Park Primary School to fund their archery curtain. We set up the Foundation in order to encourage generations of young people to participate in sporting activities, enabling them to live active and healthy lives. Horton Park’s Archery Project fits our funding criteria perfectly and will bring academic and health benefits to the school’s pupils.”

In addition, another Watson Buckle Foundation presentation also took place on 18 June at the Kings Science Academy in Bradford after the Academy applied for, and were awarded, a cash grant which they used to purchase a climbing wall for pupils. The climbing wall is a great way to continue the olympic legacy and encourage the children at the academy to improve their climbing ability and increase their levels of physical activity, which has many benefits.