West Suffolk

Active Schools West Suffolk is a 2 year project, starting Jan 2020 - Dec 2021 and is funded by NHS England via Suffolk Community Foundation. This project area is delivered jointly by Active Suffolk & Abbeycroft Leisure Trust to strengthen our local community links and to engage and bring together key partners to work together in a coordinated approach.

West Suffolk is made up of 2 districts, St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath. As like the Babergh & Mid Suffolk project, we aim to work with 20 Primary Schools, spilt evenly to target 10 schools within each district.

Why West Suffolk?

The area of West Suffolk is a predominantly rural district in the heart of East Anglia, with six market towns; Brandon, Bury St Edmunds, Clare, Haverhill, Mildenhall and Newmarket.

  • 6.4% of the population (11,515) are 5-9year olds.
  • 12% (3335) of children live-in low-income families (2016) with 26% of LSOAs being in the bottom 5 most deprived areas of West Suffolk.

St Edmundsbury

  • 21.1% Reception age children & 30.2% Year 6 age children with excess weight. 11.1% increase. With the highest % of children with excess weight as 27%.
  • CYP Active Lives data identifies that 27.6% of Primary School children are active for less than an average of 30 minutes a day.

Forest Heath

  • 20.8% Reception age children & 32.6% Year 6 age children with excess weight. 11.8% increase. With the highest % of children with excess weight as 23.9%.
  • CYP Active Lives data identifies that 44% of Primary School children are active for less than an average of 30 minutes a day.