"Daily mile," an anti-childhood obesity campaign has been launched to persuade all primary schools across the UK to adopt an active lifestyle following the success of one Scottish Primary school. Five hundred schools already signed up for the daily mile campaign.
Students at St. Ninians Primary School in Stirling, Scotland, have been running a mile daily for the last four years. Hence, none of the pupils is overweight. Moreover, the teachers said daily mile has improved their student's behavior as well as their fitness levels.
Thus, Elaine Wyllie, head teacher of St Ninians and the one who started the scheme wants daily mile to roll out in all schools across the UK. "We want all schools to give their children the opportunity to run a mile each day," she explained to Daily Mail. "It only takes fifteen minutes and has been shown to improve their health, fitness and concentration in class."
Talking about the method of daily mile, Wyllie said students at St Ninians run a mile around a specially-designed track. The pupils run every day, except on rainy days. Ms. Wyllie said the most important thing about the approach of daily mile is seeing children enjoying it. "There are now children, tens of thousands of children, walking or running a mile a day and it's all because we had a small idea four years ago," she proudly added.
One in 10 children was overweight or obese at the start of primary school in England in 2014 and one in five children was obese by the end of the school year, according to Health and Social Care Information Centre via BBC. Thus, Ms. Wyllie is really proud to be part of a campaign that aims to stop childhood obesity.