The South Tyneside community centre giving out free books and activity packs for children as school close due to coronavirus

Marsden Health and Wellbeing Centre in Marsden Road, South Shields has been leaving books and activity packs on the wall outside to keep children occupied when the schools close.

On Wednesday, March 18, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that schools across the UK would close to all pupils - except those of key workers - on Friday, March 20, in a bid to halt the spread of Covid-19.

Libraries and community centres across the borough are also shutting down temporarily, including community services at the Marsden centre which will close at 5pm on Friday, March 20.

Click here for an interactive map showing the spread of Covid-19 across the UK

Staff at the centre, which runs a free community library, came up with the idea to put the books outside on Thursday, March 19.

They have also made up activity packs including colouring sheets, crafts and snacks from the tuck shop.

They have given away more than 100 activity packs and dozens of books so far, with another 30 packs placed on the wall outside as of Friday morning.

“I was putting the books away and I realised they were just going to get wasted,” said Natalie Currer.

“We started making up the packs and they went down really well.

“Everybody is welcome to come and take as many as they like.

“It’s just to keep the kids engaged a bit while they are at home – it’s nice to have a bit of positivity amongst everything else that is going on.”

The centre, which runs services such as a community gym, playgroups and the Roundabout Cafe, announced on Wednesday, March 18 that the community side of things would temporarily close to the public at the end of the week until further notice. The GP surgery will remain open.

Natalie added: “Once we are open again we’ll get the library back up and running and we are planning to hold all our events later in the year.

“We hope we’ll be back serving the community soon and that everybody will come back and see up when we reopen with a bang.”