Ready Steady Go

When I think back over my career as a primary school teacher and wonder about the legacy I left behind, it’s not that my children had a sound grasp of fronted adverbials, nor that they could recognise an expanded noun phrase. Not even being able to simplify a fraction, although that probably comes a close second. No, the most valuable lesson I taught a lucky cohort of year 4s, was that physical activity could be fun, beneficial and an alternative to 20 minutes spent in a stuffy classroom!

I introduced the Daily Mile after reading a news article about the school in Stirling where it had all began. I read initial reports from the school indicating increased concentration in lessons, increased fitness levels in children, improved behaviour in classes and improved sleep at home. It all sounded too good to be true! I have to admit that I was already a runner myself. Not fast, but I did have a marathon and a few halves under my belt, and I had discovered running years earlier as a way of dealing with stress. I also suffer from Seasonally affected Disorder (SAD), so having an excuse to get outside during the working day was perfect for me.

I also had grave concerns about the fitness levels of my class. Most were driven to school by their parents, despite only living a few streets away, and although football and cricket was popular with some of the boys, many seemed to do little or no physical activity at all. The cardio warm-ups I did at the beginning of PE lessons left them wheezing and they seemed thoroughly unused to the concept of getting out of breath and feeling hot and sweaty! More than a handful were overweight, and a quick glance at the contents of their lunchboxes left me in no doubt as to why.

I know I’ve praised my ex-head teacher on these pages before, but true to form, when I wandered into her office and asked whether I could start taking the children out to run, jog or walk a mile around the moor every day, she trusted that I knew what I was doing. To be honest, I didn’t really know what I was doing at all, but I was passionate about getting children outdoors and trying to get them a little fitter, so I jumped in with both feet.

The first question was when was I going to do it? There was no chance of my job-share partner having any enthusiasm for my brilliant plan, so I knew that whatever I did, would only take place at the beginning of the week. The timetable I had inherited from the previous job-share partner included an extraordinarily long maths lesson every morning with a 20-minute slot for mental maths agility. That was the obvious time for it, as a maths lesson that lasted an hour and a half was just too much for most of the children. The question of where, was easy. We were based in Halifax, on the edge of ‘The Moor’ a large expanse of common which had formed part of the Savile family estate before being sold to the Halifax Corporation on condition that it undertook to abate the smoke nuisance that was, back in 1866, pervading the town. The area was gifted to improve the health of its citizens, and I was about to take on that mission. The question of who was also easy. I was fortunate enough to work in a school that had benefitted from having a hearing-impaired unit. Having a few children with one to one support meant that I had enough adults to accompany us, maintaining the ratios for any offsite visit. Whether they were all as keen as I was to accompany the children around the moor every day was debatable.

Once we’d got the go ahead, and I’d cobbled together a risk assessment, every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, directly before numeracy, we changed our shoes if we wanted to and traipsed out onto the moor. I had to dissuade some of the support staff from insisting on coats for the children, because after you’ve been jogging for more than a few minutes, you end up getting pretty warm, although it seemed to go against the grain to let children outside in winter without a coat. My rules were simple; they weren’t to set off before I had reminded them of the safety rules, which included when to start, where to wait, and what they were to do at the finishing point. They were not to talk to any strangers and if they saw a dog on the moor, they were not to touch it or encourage it to run towards them.

Generally, the children loved it. Inevitably, there were one or two who moaned, but most were keen to get outside, and we gradually had more and more children who could easily beat me around the circuit. Nobody was forced to run. That was important to me, because I didn’t want to put them off running. (Being forced on cross country runs around Birkenhead park at my secondary school had certainly put me off for at least thirty years!) They could do a brisk walk or a slow jog, and if they sprinted as fast as they could, there were strict instructions about where they had to wait for the rest of us to catch up. It was a sociable time for some. They’d chat to me as we jogged along the grass, and I’d get some insight into their lives outside school. Otherwise, they’d spend time with their friends, or enjoy the company of the teaching assistants away from the classroom. For others, it was an opportunity to outrun the rest of the class, to be the first to reach every stopping point and imagine themselves as Halifax’s very own Mo Farrah!

Elsewhere, the scientific evidence backing the Daily Mile was mounting up. A physiological study published in BMC Medicine worked with 391 schoolchildren in the Stirling area to measure the impact of The Daily Mile. It found that the initiative:

• improved the fitness of primary school children by five per cent
• reduced the amount of fat on primary school children by four per cent
• increased physical activity levels of primary school children by 15 per cent
• reduced sedentary behaviour of primary school children by five per cent

Another research project involved 7,500 primary school pupils from across the UK. The study compared pupils’ scores on online cognitive tests following different types of exercise: near exhaustive exercise (the bleep test); self-paced exercise (like the Daily Mile); and, a control activity (at rest). The study found that pupils’ best responses came after physical activity that was set at their own pace. A 15-minute break from class can improve a child’s mood, attention and memory - enhancing their ability to learn.

The Daily Mile’s founder, Elaine Wyllie, has attributed the scheme’s success to its simplicity, flexibility and adaptability and identified its key components as:

• allowing the children to run, jog or walk
• flexible delivery that supports teacher autonomy
• adaptability that suits the specific primary school context

So what happened to my children? Unsurprisingly, they got fitter, and in a matter of weeks most of them were able to walk or jog a mile without much effort at all. They learned how to pace themselves and how to regulate their breathing so they didn’t collapse in a heap at the end. They learned how to cheer each other on as each passed the finish line, even to congratulate one another. The support staff even got fitter, and my brilliant TA who suffered from fibromyalgia was one of the keenest amongst us.

We drank more water as most opted to carry water bottles with them, or drank thirstily when we got back into class, and felt refreshed and invigorated for the rest of the morning. Parents were pleased; some reported their children wanting to go for a run at the weekend, and I had parents who were doctors praising the fact that I was taking the children’s health seriously. I’d love to report that all their levels shot up, but that would be an exaggeration. They continued improving at the same rate as before, but certainly didn’t suffer from losing that extra maths session!

There was one child in particular that I’ll never forget. You know the ones who aren’t really suited to being sat on a chair all day. He wasn’t academic, struggled with reading as well as numeracy and literacy, wasn’t particularly creative, nor did he excel at games because people didn’t want him on their team as he struggled to obey the rules. He won a race every day! No matter how many times I told him that it wasn’t a race, he still insisted that he won. He was by far the fastest and strongest runner in the class and had finally discovered something he was really good at! He’d be the first back in the classroom, the first to get his books out and start writing in his numeracy book. I don’t know what’s become of him, but I do hope he’s still running.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Daily Mile, including some research on the benefits, check out the advice here, or if you have any experiences you’d like to share, please get in touch.

Jan Fitzpatrick is a proofreader here at Classroom Secrets and a member of the blog team. She has over 16 years of experience in working in schools and colleges and qualified as a primary school teacher in 2008. When not exercising her love of grammar, Jan spends her time running on the Yorkshire moorland with her enormous goldendoodle, camping in the Lake District, or taking outdoor dips in freezing lakes and rivers. When the weather is too bad for any outdoor activities, she spends her time trying to improve her Spanish.