Oldham's time to get behind the Daily Mile

Date published: 28 March 2018


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Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham was joined by Elaine Wyllie, founder of the Daily Mile, to celebrate Greater Manchester’s commitment to becoming the world’s first Daily Mile City-Region.

Elaine presented Mr Burnham with a special pair of ‘The Daily Mile’ plimsolls to commemorate the city-region’s pledge to become more active and secure the fastest improvement to the health and wellbeing of Greater Manchester’s 2.8 million citizens by becoming the world’s first Daily Mile City-Region.

This sets a target for all nurseries, schools, universities and work places to adopt The Daily Mile.

Certainly schools in Oldham have already been playing their part.

Among others, the Northmoor Academy and Baretrees primary have been getting stuck into the Daily Mile initiative, as our video (below) highlights.

Northmoor Head Amy Coleman said: "Each day during break time the children are encouraged to walk, jog or run for 15 minutes.

"Everybody has been really excited about this initiative, and especially about the health benefits it brings.

"It also brings a bit of healthy competition, with teachers and children wanting to beat each other's scores.

"It also offers a really good social opportunity at Northmoor, as with over 21 languages spoken, the children can mix with their peers and teachersin a way that they might not otherwise do in the classroom."

Currently 25% of Greater Manchester adults are inactive with 38% not active enough to benefit their health, while 28% of children in Greater Manchester are classified as overweight or obese.

With inactivity costing the NHS in Greater Manchester an estimated £26.7million per year, Greater Manchester partners are working together to get Greater Manchester Moving. 

There is compelling evidence to show that physical activity can greatly improve a person’s mental and physical wellbeing and The Daily Mile is an activity that can done by everyone regardless of age, ability or personal circumstance.

The Daily Mile is a simple, free and fun initiative where children and adults run, jog or walk for 15 minutes every day. In this time, most people will average a mile or more.

Mr Burnham said: “We do things differently here in Greater Manchester and we are showing this by being the world’s first city-region committed to The Daily Mile. We are ambitious in both what we want to achieve and to improve the lives of everyone who lives and works across our city-region.

“I am a big believer in physical activity because it has a positive impact on both physical and mental health, which is exactly what The Daily Mile sets out to achieve. I want to give young people the best active start in life and it is very promising to see that we already have 43% of schools in Greater Manchester on board with the initiative.

“Currently 38% of adults in Greater Manchester are not active enough to benefit their health, but we are working to improve this. I am confident that with the introduction of The Daily Mile, aligned with the ambitions of the Greater Manchester Strategy and Greater Manchester Moving, we can achieve our goals of seeing a great improvement to the health, wealth and wellbeing of everyone in our city-region.”

Daily Mile founder Wyllie said: “I started The Daily Mile when I was a head teacher in 2012 to improve the fitness and increase physical activity levels amongst our students.

"It’s now spread to over 3,100 schools worldwide. Workplaces are now starting to catch on to the benefits.

"It’s not just physical fitness; participants have shown improvements in attainment, concentration and quality of sleep.”

For more details, check out: www.thedailymile.co.uk

Watch some of Oldham's exciting Daily Mile activities (below).

Oldham's exciting Daily Mile activities are highlighted by staff and pupils at the Northmoor Academy and Baretrees primary school