{"id":6696,"date":"2016-03-10T08:31:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T07:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/?p=6696"},"modified":"2018-02-06T18:30:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T17:30:06","slug":"the-daily-mile-combating-childhood-obesity-one-step-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/2016\/03\/10\/the-daily-mile-combating-childhood-obesity-one-step-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Mile! Combating childhood obesity one step at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Elaine Wyllie\u00a0<\/strong>@_thedailymile<\/a><\/p>\n

The Daily Mile is a Health and Wellbeing (H&WB) physical activity initiative which developed organically in a large Scottish primary school and nursery class in 2012. It began after a volunteer in the school observed that the children were unfit. It is sustainable over the long term because it meets the needs of childhood and is loved by children, parents and staff.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nIn a Physical Education (PE) class in February 2012, children in Primary 6 were asked to run round the football field to see how fit they were. Most could not even get halfway round before they had to stop for breath.\u00a0 The PE teacher confirmed that most of the children were so unfit that they were exhausted by the warm up!\u00a0 Critically, the children recognized that they weren\u2019t fit and they wanted to do something about it. \u00a0After discussion with them, it was agreed that they would run round the field for 15 minutes each day to see what would happen.<\/p>\n

\"KILLERMONT
Images are with permission from Killermont Primary, Glasgow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a month, the children\u2019s fitness was transformed.\u00a0 Parents, children and staff all agreed that the children should keep running daily.\u00a0 The children measured the path and 5 laps was equal to I mile.\u00a0 In their 15 minutes the children were averaging 5 laps and the Daily Mile was born.\u00a0 By June 2012, all 360 children in the school were doing the Daily Mile and the 60 children in the nursery joined in towards the end of 2012.<\/p>\n

Four years later, the Daily Mile is still going strong, and it has spread to 500 schools in Scotland and many more across the rest of the UK. Daily Mile pilot programs are being carried out in schools in Flanders, Belgium and South Africa.\u00a0 More and more schools are starting every day.<\/p>\n

While all schools report that the Daily Mile produces transformational change in children\u2019s fitness levels, crucially, it also benefits children\u2019s mental, social and emotional health and wellbeing – some children show improvement in their behavior.<\/p>\n

The reason that the Daily Mile is such a success in part because it happens where all of our children are every day \u2013 in their schools and nurseries. An existing path can be used or a new path created \u2013 after that, the Daily Mile is free.<\/p>\n

How the Daily Mile works:<\/strong><\/p>\n