Partnership backs campaign to get 1M children moving through The Daily Mile

The Daily Mile is hosting its first national event day in schools and across social media, to get one million children across England to be active together at the same time on 30 April.

“England does The Daily Mile” is a virtual mass participation event across all England’s primary schools. On the 30 April, schools and ‘social bubbles’, up and down the country, will run their Daily Mile virtually, together in an effort to raise awareness for children’s mental health and wellbeing across the country.

The Daily Mile currently has over 3 million children running a daily mile across 12,000 schools in 80 countries, but this is the first national event of its kind. The hope is to capture the camaraderie that children have missed while schools have been closed, and give young people the chance to get involved in fun healthy activities. It is anticipated that 1 million children, nurseries, primary schools and families across the country will get involved.

The Daily Mile is a transformative initiative where children run, jog, wheel or walk for fifteen minutes every day, in which time, most people will average a mile or more. The initiative has enjoyed phenomenal success since it was started by then Headteacher Elaine Wyllie just eight years ago at a single primary school in Stirling. Today 3 million children worldwide are now running a mile a day.

Throughout the last two years, The Daily Mile has grown in popularity with 6,536 schools taking part in the fitness initiative in England alone. Most recently The Daily Mile adapted and became The Daily Mile At Home, supporting families and teachers across the globe in keeping children fit and active during lockdown.

The Daily Mile Foundation has also teamed up with mental health charity Place2Be to offer free resources to schools to support our young people’s mental health.

Catherine Roche, Chief Executive of children’s mental health charity Place2Be said:

‘Many children have just faced the most challenging year of their young lives – through Place2Be’s work supporting pupils in schools we know that some pupils have struggled with anxiety, depression, loneliness and loss in recent months. As pupils and staff settle back into school routines, it’s a crucial time to focus on supporting wellbeing and building up their resilience. It’s important to get moving! Encouraging children to take part in physical exercise is one great way to promote positive ways to look after mental wellbeing, so I’d urge all schools to join us and get involved with ‘England does the Daily Mile’.’

More information on The Daily Mile.