The parents of West Pembroke Primary students might be sweating at tonight’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting — in a good way.

Rather than a traditional PTA meeting, the school is holding a free Zumba class for parents, in partnership with The Athletic Club, as part of an effort to encourage physical fitness and provide a unique exercise opportunity.

Deputy principal Wendell Smith said the event fell under the Healthy Schools initiative, put forward by the Department of Health.

“We have done a lot of initiatives directly for the children,” he said. “We have done walks to Admiralty House, there have been activity afternoons where they spend between 1pm and 3pm outdoors playing various games, but we haven’t focused much on the parents.

“We thought we should do something that might help some of them so, in lieu of the regular PTA meetings, we decided we should hold a Zumba class for parents in the evening.”

Mr Smith said that to make PTA events more interesting, organisers had been attempting to do things other than hold a typical meeting. Recent gatherings have been dedicated to helping parents with their children’s reading and maths skills.

Mr Smith said that while the Zumba initiative was aimed directly at parents, anything that promoted fitness in the home could potentially benefit the entire family.

“Activities that parents and children can do together, like going on trail walks or going cycling, are good for everyone,” he added. “That would be a wonderful thing. There’s really no limit to the things they can do.

“They would be helping us with their own children’s fitness. Our school already has a reputation for athletic excellence, but it could only get better if more parents became involved.”

Mr Smith said the school had expanded the athletic options available to students to include more options, such as bowling and sailing, with the sponsorship of the PTA and Amlin.

“The children absolutely love it,” he said. “Some of the children loved the sailing so much they kept up with it and are still sailing. Although they only started two years ago, some have gone on to various sailing competitions in Bermuda.”

The Zumba class is due to take place at the school at 5.30pm today.

• A PDF file of the event flyer can be viewed under ‘attached media’