SCHOOLCHILDREN face a healthier future thanks to a £1-million cash boost to promote sport and exercise in Five Valleys schools.

The Government cash will be drip fed over the next three years with the aim of enabling every school to have a designated sports co-ordinator.

Pupils will be encouraged to exercise regularly both at school and through clubs and societies.

Teachers and GPs have welcome the move - which comes as experts predict worrying rises in childhood obesity fuelled by junk food diets and lack of exercise.

Studies also show that healthier children learn better.

The funding - part of a national drive to promote sport - will begin this autumn.

It will be co-ordinated through Thomas Keble School, where a new project development manager will work with other schools and clubs to run tournaments and events and boost health education.

Head teacher Chris Steer said it is crucial that children get into the habit of regular exercise.

"We firmly believe that sport should be a prominent feature of all children's experience," he said.

"A lot of research suggests high quality sport and PE boosts learning and achievement."

Angela James, physical activity consultant at Gloucestershire County Council, said the scheme had been successful in other areas of the country.

She said: "A healthier child is a better learner and the whole school is lifted as behaviour, attendance and attainment improves."

Stroud's Olympic marathon runner Dan Robinson also welcomed the project - saying it was vital that Britain invests in future athletes.

"The more people who participate should mean the quality of athletes will improve," said the 30-year-old, who competed in the Athens Olympics in 2004 and will take part in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March.

"It's absolutely fantastic that this money is being put forward - this is the way to produce great athletes."

The scheme, part funded by a Lottery grant, is particularly aimed at children who normally shun sport.

A recent British Medical Association study warned that if current trends continue one fifth of boys and a third of girls will be obese by 2020.

Dr Nigel Booker, a GP at the Prices Mill Surgery, Nailsworth, said far too many children prefer computer games to physical activities.

"Video and computer games occupy children too much and obesity needs to be addressed quickly," he said.

"Healthy levels of exercise help circulation, muscle tone and if nothing else stops children from just sitting and eating.

"Knocking a cricket ball about and playing football is much better." Stroud MP David Drew is also concerned about children's health.

"The only way to attack obesity is to change people's attitude towards diet and get them to be more active," he said.

Children's diets also been a cause for alarm recently.

But this week a new scheme - health 4 schools - saw celebrity chef Rob Rees visit several Five Valleys schools to show children how to cook healthy meals.