Dinas Powys Primary School
“The children now see The Daily Mile as part of their daily routine”

Mrs Heather Duffield, Year 2 Teacher at Dinas Powys Primary School, shares their Daily Mile story with us:

We have been completing The Daily Mile since the beginning of the Spring Term. In January, the children used a trundle wheel to measure the perimeter of the playground and then with support used a calculator to work the distance they would cover. This engaged the children from the beginning, and they were able to explain what they had done so they had some ownership of their progress. We explained to the children the importance of exercise and used the saying of healthy body healthy mind. In January, they completed a mile every day for the month of January and Monday, Thursday and Friday during February and March.

We focus and base our classroom practice on Growth Mindset. So, the children were excited at first to complete The Daily Mile, but this did wain and they needed motivational language and sentence patterns which were adult led to continue to motivate the children. As a runner myself the benefits and the way it makes you feel has a positive effect. The children can now be heard saying” even though I find this hard, I’m going to keep going”, “my legs are aching but I’m not going to give up”, “I’m getting myself fit”. We’ve discussed playing music on Thursday and Friday to continue to motivate the children towards the end of the week. The Daily Mile has become part of the school week.

The children now see The Daily Mile as part of their daily routine. They have said that they really enjoyed doing it and how it makes them feel happy. Staff said they found it easier the more times they completed it and how much better it makes them feel. The social benefits we have seen are that children are encouraging each other to keep going and through the taught growth mindset approach they openly say they will not give up even if they are feeling tired.

We decided that on Fridays we would have a celebrity from the world of fitness and sport to hopefully come and complete The Daily Mile with us. Consequently, we had a visit from Dan from Cardiff City and he promoted the positivity of exercise. Cath Bingham came from Run Wales and explained to the children about The Daily Mile and showed them a map of the different countries where The Daily Mile was being done. Joe Ledley from the Football Association of Wales has also completed The Daily Mile with the children. There was a question-and-answer session with the celebrities and as the Health and Wellbeing topic this term is all about Being Healthy the children asked well thought out questions. The impact has been the links we have generated with outside agencies who have provided the children with opportunities to understand the importance of keeping fit and healthy. Also, they were able to hear sports people talk about the importance of exercise.

One of the staff members was initially daunted by having to complete The Daily Mile. Through integration and motivating the children she was running with; she has grown her confidence in her ability to run and has seen an increase in her own fitness levels as she has completed it. In addition, she is now more confident running and enjoys the way it makes her feel.

Quotes from some of our pupils:

“It’s fun”

“It keeps me fit”

“It makes me calm”

“It makes me happy”

“It’s really good to do exercise”

“I like it when I have a stitch and I keep going and don’t give up”

“You can feel it through your body”

“I like calming myself down after doing it”

“I like running fast”

“I like it when I feel sweaty”