Children today spend more time sitting than ever before. And research shows that as they grow up, children tend to become more sedentary and less active.
This is where the Daily Mile, a teacher-led running programme for primary school children, aims to make a difference. Designed by a headteacher in Scotland in 2012 in a bid to get children more active, the concept involves children running laps of the playground or school playing fields for 15 minutes everyday. Its simple design combined with political, public health and celebrity endorsement has seen it expand to over 10,000 schools in 78 countries worldwide.
Recent research has shown that the Daily Mile may help children become fitter and reduce their body fat. But with over 2.3 million children taking part over the last eight years, we wanted to find out what school children thought of the Daily Mile.
In our new research that we conducted with our primary school health network, HAPPEN, we found that the Daily Mile can make a massive difference to children’s lives.