The Daily Mile Initiative

[Gemini]

My grandson's school is now part of this.
I am going to a presentation and walk this afternoon.
Apparently the idea started in 2012, in Scotland, in order to combat the rising epidemic of obesity in school age children. With all the snacks around and many children going to school and back in cars and spending a lot of screen time, it is easy to see why they may be less active and heavier these days.
The Daily Mile came into being in the UK in 2015, and is considered to have positive impact on children's health and wellbeing.

It is simple to do, no need for children to change into sports kit. Every child in the school or nursery taking part get into the fresh for 15 minutes a day to walk, run or jog for 15 minutes. It is not competitive. Some children will do more and more less in that time.
More info in the link!

https://thedailymile.co.uk/

[Oma]

When Josh was in Primary they had a walking bus scheme for those that lived in walking distance to combat the car usage and parking problem ,
they had a couple of people with HV vests and school bus poles like lollypop ladies who collected them on the route from parents and escorted them to school.
Play time could be longer and encourage them to run around and play , although if you watch Primary and infants at play time you never see them sitting still so I think they do get a lot of exercise ,
Its when they get to senior school I think the problem starts , the boys will play football but the girls just stand around in groups on their phones .

[Shemadee]

It is tricky. Both boys do football training and matches and now rugby has been added. Problem is they are made to feel bad if they can’t attend so hard to organise family gatherings. When mine were younger DD1 &DS did football training followed by a match so it was all done and dusted on Saturday morning.

[WeeGranny]

Our local primary has been doing that for some time. They call it the Golden Mile and the children go out in their classes and run/walk round the playing field. Don't think they actually cover a mile!

[Gemini]

My GD does dance and karate (Karate twice a week ) so she's very fit and active

[Nanto2girls]

i haven't heard of the Daily Mile, but it sounds like a good idea.

[Mimi]

I have seen this on our local news, several schools have taken part and as far as I know it seems to have been a success.

[Daisy]

I remember GS2's school doing something like this about 6 or 7 years ago. There were rewards and incentives for those children who took part. At that time GS was in a primary school 2 ½ miles from home with exactly the same starting and finishing times as his older brother whose school was 5 minutes walk from home. GS2 was devastated because he couldn't take part, and DIL was furious that, through absolutely no fault of his own he was being excluded from a reward-based activity. The scheme was quietly dropped. I could see the advantage of encouraging children (and parents/grans) to walk more, but to single out those who did from those who couldn't seemed wrong.

So the Daily Mile, during the school day seems a much better idea.

[Nana]

I've not heard of this. I'll pass it onto my DD1. Thanks.