For some children at a west Oxfordshire school, muddy trainers and cold cross-country runs are a thing of the past as they bounce their way to fitness.

The Marlborough School in Woodstock, has invested in an exercise DVD with a hip-hop soundtrack and 30 miniature trampolines for their pupils to offer something different during PE lessons.

Lesley Malloch, head of PE at the school, decided to buy some ‘trampettes’ for her department, at a cost of £20 each, after trying out the DVD herself.

She said: “I hurt my back in a school skiing trip so tried out the DVD, as I couldn’t run on concrete anymore.

“I thought it looked quite cool so I bought them for the school. Everyone seems to really enjoy it. They don’t bounce every single lesson.”

The circular trampettes, each measuring about a metre across, are set up while the DVD is shown on a projector screen.

Hannah Bowerman, from Combe, near Woodstock, said the bouncing classes were only for girls at the moment.

She added: “I don’t think the boys are really interested. They go and play rugby and things like that and we do the DVD inside.

“The classes are really good. I prefer it to going out in this weather and running around the field.”

The youngsters jump only a few inches off the surface of the trampoline in time to music, and the routines have also been adopted by NASA as part of a fitness regime for its astronauts.

They last for 50 minutes and vary in theme from boxercise to hip-hop-themed bouncing.

The school holds PE lessons for students aged from 11 to 16 for 100 minutes every week, and the DVD makes up some of the core activities.

They also teach more traditional sports such as badminton, netball, and football, but according to the girls, bouncing is becoming a firm favourite.

Fifteen-year-old Emma Hicks, from Bicester, said: “It’s really fun. Bouncing is very popular with everyone.

“There are lots of options for us to take but this is the best. It’s just something a bit different for us to do, and makes exercise as fun as possible for people who don’t really want to do it.”