YOUNGSTERS are working alongside Middlesbrough Football Club (MFC) to learn the importance of healthy lifestyles.

Neighbourhood Management, in Stockton, has joined forces with the club at Riverside Stadium to devise a course for the pupils.

Year four and five pupils from Bowesfield Primary School are the first to try the scheme, attending the club's community centre and stadium once a week for six weeks.

Headteacher Emily Hodgeon said she hoped the experience would boost their self-esteem, as well as be educational.

"Pupils are getting the opportunity to work with some positive role models, to raise their awareness of the importance of healthy lifestyle choices," said Miss Hodgeon.

The project is being organised by MFC in the Community manager Rob Lake.

He is looking forward to his staff being able to build a closer relationship with the children than is normally possible during the one-day education scheme that the club currently offers to schools.

"In one day, we can deliver a message, but then the children go away, and we have no opportunity to follow it up," said Mr Lake.

"This longer course means we can get to know the children, and they can feel more part of the club and, that way, our messages will be much more concentrated and specific to them."

Children from Mill Lane, Oxbridge Lane and St Cuthbert's RC primary schools are also to take part in the scheme.

If successful, MFC will look for funding to extend it beyond the Parkfield and Mill Lane areas of Stockton.