Schools are being encouraged to sign up for an Erewash School Sport Partnership initiative which gives children the opportunity to be active at least once a day.
Eddie’s Miles was named after the ESSP mascot Eddie and involves children being asked to run or walk at least a mile a day if they can. The children fill in a tally chart and once they’ve reached significant milestones they can earn a certificate or a medal.
Rhian Lilley, Erewash School Sport Partnership development manager, said the idea of Eddie’s Miles was to encourage children to be physically active while having fun.
She said: “Eddie’s Miles is about making sure that children get the opportunity to be physically active at some point during their school day.
“We introduced the initiative to help midday supervisors and classroom teachers to engage their pupils in trying to run or walk a mile each day. We wanted to make it fun for them and reward them along the way too.
“Children being physically active before going back into classroom means it improves their readiness to learn, improves behaviour in the classroom and in the playground, improves pupils’ mental health and obviously makes them healthier and fitter.
“We are currently working with 15 schools in the area on Eddie’s Miles but we are keen to work with more.”
Jenny Robinson, Year 6 teacher at Granby Junior School in Ilkeston, said everyone was enjoying being part of Eddie’s Miles.
She said: “There are currently over 300 children in the school trying to join in every day and Year 6 make a good job of it most days. We are encouraging them to run around, we are aiming for a mile although we just tell them to do what they can. It gives them a bit of a break and they get to talk to me and their friends. It’s just a great way of getting children to be active and healthy.”
Nicky Reed, midday supervisor at Shardlow Primary School, said the pupils enjoyed being active.
She said: “We are running Eddie’s Miles and the children decided on their own that they wanted to do it and we are encouraging them to be active on a daily basis.”
Giuliana, a pupil at Shardlow Primary School, said she enjoyed running around with her friends.
She said: “If you run around the field five times that’s one mile. You get a tally chart so once you’ve done 10 miles you get a sticker and once you’ve done 100 miles you can get a medal. That’s cool.”
Any school interested in signing up for Eddie’s Miles can contact Rhian on rlilley@kirkhallam.derbyshire.sch.uk

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