Olympic gold medal hockey winner, Nicola White MBE and Elaine Wylie, founder of The Daily Mile attended St Teresa's RC Primary School in Salford to join in with Greater Manchester’s daily mile on the 22nd September, with the aim to inspire more schools to take part in The Daily Mile as tens of thousands of young people get active and walk, jog or run at their own school on the same day.
With 68% of 5 – 15 year olds in the North West not achieving the Chief Medical Officer ACTIVE Guidelines local sports charity, GreaterSporturged all Greater Manchester schools to join in with the Greater Manchester Daily Mile celebration event.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham showed his support by attending Oakfield Primary School and joined in their Daily Mile. A short video clip can be found here.
At the start of this academic year there were 82 schools in Greater Manchester registered to the national Daily Mile initiative but with 850 in total across the County there is more to do. The Celebration day saw DOUBLE that number take part in their Daily Mile.
The idea behind The Daily Mile is that it is not sport or PE, it focuses on health and wellbeing and encourages children to adopt healthy habits early on so that they can carry this through to adulthood.
Immediate benefits include sharper focus and greater concentration (leading to better learning) and longer-term benefits include increased physical fitness and children who are more aware of their own health and wellbeing.
Andy Burnham commented;
“More than 250,000young people across Greater Manchester don’t currently reach the Chief Medical Officer Guidelines for getting the right amount of activity a day and we need to change that. Let’s get Greater Manchester moving.”
Matt Stocks, Senior Development Manager at GreaterSport commented;
“To double the number of schools taking part in The Daily Mile through the Celebration event is fantastic. I hope participating schools continue with their Daily Mile and the event is the catalyst for more to follow. We strongly believe The Daily Mile can greatly improve the mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing of children and young people.’’
Elaine Wyllie commented;
“It really is so easy,” said Elaine. “Children love running. All they need is somewhere to do it. We are hoping that the Greater Manchester Daily Mile celebration will be a catalyst for change and encourage more schools to give it a go.”
Photos from the day can be found here.