The Daily Mile™

The Daily Mile is simple and free, and gets children out of the classroom for 15 minutes every day to run or jog at their own pace with their classmates, making them fitter, healthier and more able to concentrate in the classroom. With one in four of our school children deemed to be overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school, and with growing issues around the mental well being of young people, The Daily Mile can make a marked and lasting difference to the lives of our young people. The Partnership are responsible for encouraging as many schools as possible in Hertfordshire to adopt The Daily Mile.

England Does The Daily Mile

On Friday 30 April schools and ‘social bubbles’, up and down the country, ran their Daily Mile together in an effort to raise awareness for children’s mental health and wellbeing. Ahead of the day, Charlie Honour from St Peter’s School in St Albans and staff at Cowley Hill Primary School in Hertsmere, who have recently embedded The Daily Mile into their Wellbeing Wednesday programme, supported HSP, with a Daily Mile article for the TES. Across Hertfordshire more than 36,000 primary school pupils were signed up to participate, from 143 schools, and it was great to see these schools encouraging children to be active as away to promote better physical health and mental wellbeing.

At St Alban and St Stephen Catholic Primary School, PE Lead Heather Bowen shared that the school had not been involved with The Daily Mile initiative before the event, but the children had such a great time that the school have now decided to adopt it as a regular physical activity across all school years.

Through the Partnership’s Active Local project, Athlete Mentors from the Youth Sport Trust carried out virtual visits to schools, with pupils and staff at Our Lady Catholic Primary School in Welwyn Garden City getting motivated on the event day by former professional tennis player Jade Windley.

Dan Abrahams, Deputy Head Teacher and PE Lead, shared that the school used the event day as an opportunity to trial The Daily Mile and see how it could be organised across the school: ‘Without doubt, the day could not be considered anything other than a roaring success and has left us in no doubt that we shall be offering the Daily Mile – daily! We truly believe that it will have a positive impact, not only in instilling a greater understanding of the importance of health, fitness and exercise, but in terms of behaviour and self-esteem.’

Well done to everyone who participated in the England Does The Daily Mile campaign.

ITV films The Daily Mile

In October 2020, two Hertfordshire schools were visited by ITV to be filmed as part of a national promotion of The Daily Mile. Broom Barns Primary School in Stevenage and Cherry Tree Primary in Watford showcased their daily miles in beautiful weather, and were aired on ITV Anglia and ITV London respectively.

Watch ITV at Broom Barns Primary School
Watch ITV at Cherry Tree Primary School

The Daily Mile Destinations Campaign

Travel the Great Wall of China, soak up the spray at Niagara Falls or stand in awe as the sun rises over the pyramids of Giza…wherever you begin, let The Daily Mile Destinations campaign help you to keep pupils fit, focused and flourishing. Aiming to achieve 100 days of The Daily Mile, classes are tasked with completing 3-5 days of The Daily Mile a week with each Daily Mile day moving them closer towards achieving new Daily Mile Destinations Certificates and Daily Mile Destination Stickers.

To join the movement and get your school signed up to The Daily Mile click here

Please find additional resources below:

Hertfordshire Daily Mile case studies:

For further details please contact:

Alex Varran
E: a.varran2@herts.ac.uk

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