THE DAILY MILE CELEBRATES GREATER MANCHESTER MOVING TOWARDS BECOMING THE FIRST DAILY MILE CITY-REGION

The Daily Mile, supported by INEOS, is celebrating Greater Manchester taking a huge step towards becoming the first Daily Mile city-region. Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, and Elaine Wyllie, Founder of The Daily Mile joined forces to encourage schools across Greater Manchester to get moving.

In March 2018, Andy Burnham joined Elaine Wyllie, founder of The Daily Mile, and made the commitment for Greater Manchester (GM) to become the world’s first Daily Mile City-Region. Today we are celebrating taking a step closer to achieving that ambition as we reach the milestone of 500 primary schools signed up to The Daily Mile across Greater Manchester.

As Greater Manchester approached this milestone, GreaterSport ran a competition for school children to design a running jersey to celebrate the achievement. Hundreds of children from across the city region sent in their designs, the winning design selected by Elaine Wyllie will be presented to its creator Freya Costello from Willows Primary School, and to Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham. The jersey will be able to sit alongside the Daily Mile plimsolls that Andy was presented with by Elaine Wyllie in 2018.

The Daily Mile, supported by INEOS, 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 across 12,000 schools are now running a mile a day.

Currently, Greater Manchester has some of the lowest levels of physical activity within the entire United Kingdom. As it stands, 60.4% of children and young people are not meeting the Chief Medical Officer guidelines for physical activity., with 37.7% being classified as overweight or obese by the time they reach year six, according to the National Child Measurement Programme data, 2019/2020.

Throughout the last two years, The Daily Mile has grown in popularity across the region as it has worked to tackle the low levels of physical activity, particularly amongst members of Greater Manchester’s youngest population. In 2018 Greater Manchester marked its commitment to becoming the first Daily Mile City Region, aiming for all nurseries, schools, universities, and workplaces  to adopt The Daily Mile.

Elaine Wyllie, Founder of The Daily Mile says, “It is so exciting to see so many schools and children get involved in The Daily Mile and this Jersey Competition. Community and wellness are so important at the moment and getting moving everyday can really help our mental health. With Covid-19 shutting schools again, staying physically and mentally healthy is more important than ever. I had so much fun picking the winner of the Jersey Competition and am just sorry I couldn’t pick more than one! We now have an amazing 3 million children running The Daily Mile and I hope to see ever more cities reach the milestone that Greater Manchester has!”

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester says, “I’m delighted that 500 primary schools in Greater Manchester are now taking part in The Daily Mile. I want all young people to have the best start in life, and that’s why initiatives like The Daily Mile are so important to help ensure that all of Greater Manchester’s children have the opportunity to be physically active.

I want to encourage all schools who aren’t yet signed up to get involved so that their students can benefit from the physical and mental health benefits that moving more can bring. Here in Greater Manchester we remain committed to becoming the world’s first Daily Mile City-Region, and I look forward to seeing the number of schools and other education settings taking part continue to grow.”

With the majority of children now being home-schooled due to the reintroduction of a national lockdown, The Daily Mile have updated and re-launched their #DailyMileAtHome resources to support families to keep moving safely. The challenges help families to get outside and moving together each day to help look after their physical and mental health during these difficult times.

Hayley Lever GreaterSport CEO and GM Moving Exec Lead added, “Helping people keep moving is arguably more important now than ever before as we see the impacts of coronavirus on children’s activity levels. With the intermittent closure of schools, sports clubs and leisure facilities during the pandemic, children have had less opportunities to be active. Utilising the Daily Mile at Home resources whilst children are unable to attend school will be a great way for families to move more together, helping to look after their health and wellbeing and hopefully create healthy habits long after the lockdown.”

ENDS.

Media contacts

MediaZoo for The Daily Mile Foundation: Emily Northcott | emily.northcott@mediazoo.tv | 07876033636

MediaZoo for The Daily Mile Foundation: Emily Drake | emily.drake@mediazoo.tv | 07769158292

3 MILLION CHILDREN RUN THE DAILY MILE AS IT SIGNS UP ITS 12,000th SCHOOL

The Daily Mile Foundation, supported by INEOS, today announced that over 3 million children across 12,000 schools and nurseries in over 79 countries around the world are taking part in the fitness initiative, with 6,420 schools in England alone. This figure has grown rapidly in the past year with schools and families still doing The Daily Mile throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Foundation’s network of partners in the UK, Europe and beyond is working hard to grow the number of schools taking part. In the UK alone, partnerships with Sport England, supported by the National Lottery, as well as London Marathon and ITV have led to record engagement with The Daily Mile. Their support highlights the shared ambition of leading national organisations to getting children active across the country.

The Daily Mile Foundation has continued to support schools and families throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, launching two motivational campaigns;  #TheDailyMileAtHome supported families who were keen to get their children and themselves moving during lockdown when schools were closed, and The Daily Mile #BackToSchool focused on helping schools and nurseries to safely return their children back into a Daily Mile routine in September.

With the majority of children now being home-schooled due to the reintroduction of a national lockdown, The Daily Mile have updated and re-launched their #DailyMileAtHome resources to support families so they can keep moving safely. The challenges help families to get outside and move together each day to help look after their physical and mental health during these difficult times.

The Daily Mile initiative was founded by Elaine Wyllie MBE in 2012 when she was headteacher of St Ninians’s Primary School in Stirling, Scotland. The initiative has gone on to enjoy immense popularity and received high profile backing, with the Scottish and Welsh government citing their support, as well as support from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and sporting legends including Sir Andy Murray, Paula Radcliffe MBE, Sir Mo Farah and marathon record breaker Eliud Kipchoge.

The Daily Mile Foundation, in partnership with the Scottish Government, is also working on ambitious plans for Scotland to become the world’s first Daily Mile Nation. The plans are based on a model of partnerships all with the same mission of driving participation and encouraging people to jog or run their own Daily Mile as part of everyday life. The scheme is currently active in every Local Authority in Scotland but through the actioning the plan the aim is to increase the number of schools actively delivering the initiative regularly.

Elaine Wyllie MBE, Founder of The Daily Mile says, “I am overwhelmed to see that over 3 million children across 79 countries around the world are taking part in The Daily Mile. From a simple yet effective initiative launched at a school in Stirling it is amazing to see how it has grown.

It’s an incredible milestone moment in our effort to make a difference to the lives of children on a global scale. I would like to give my sincere thanks to INEOS for its incredible support and to our inspiring team of partners in 79 countries who share our vision of helping children across the world to get fit for life with The Daily Mile.

Being fit and active is so important for everyone’s physical and mental health. With lots of us being in another lockdown it can be hard to motivate yourself to stay active, but that is what is so good about The Daily Mile At Home – it is a simple, free and quick way to keep fit meaning that families can fit it into their busy days of working and homeschooling!”

Find out more about The Daily Mile at Home and access the resources here. If you want your school pupils to benefit from taking part in The Daily Mile, sign your school up here.

ENDS.

Media contacts

MediaZoo for The Daily Mile Foundation: Emily Northcott | emily.northcott@mediazoo.tv | 07876033636

MediaZoo for The Daily Mile Foundation: Emily Drake | emily.drake@mediazoo.tv | 07769158292