Search for secret of the Daily Mile
Universities publish their findings
The Daily Mile, which started in Stirling and spread to schools across the world, has been a success because of its “simplicity, flexibility and adaptability”, a study has found.
But not all children taking part in the scheme complete a mile and others walk, jog or even skip during the daily exercise session.
Academics from the universities of Edinburgh and the Highlands and Islands joined colleagues from Stirling University to study the initiative, which was first introduced by headteacher Elaine Wyllie at St Ninians Primary in 2012.
She became concerned after remarks were made about the fitness of one of the classes during a PE session.
This report comes just months after research led by the same team confirmed that the Daily Mile, which involves children taking a 15minute break from class to do physical activity, improves fitness, body composition and activity levels in participants.
For the latest research the team conducted interviews at four Scottish primary schools with staff who had a significant role in organising the Daily Mile.
Two schools were implenting the initiative successfully, with the other two finding the process more challenging.
Researchers found in all schools that the exercise was time rather than distance-based. Primaries were setting aside 15 minutes to complete it.
The amount of time was seen as being short enough not to interfere too much with the school day. If the children were running then they achieved approximately one mile during this period.
One school at first had the children completing a mile but it took some children too long or was too difficult for them to complete the distance. Staff therefore introduced 15 minutes of activity, which was found to be more feasible.
Primaries mainly chose to implement walking, jogging or running as the type of activity.
One person interviewed for the study said: “Some of the kids will just run around and want to know how many laps they can do. You’ve got other ones that are happy just to walk.”
At another school teachers replaced the Daily Mile with the Daily Skip, due to space constraints within the small playground.
However, the alternative scheme proved “very challenging” for various reasons including cost of equipment, logistics of managing the skipping ropes and skills required to skip.
Schools typically held the Daily Mile three to five times per week, normally on days with no scheduled physical education.
Gemma Ryde from Stirling University, who led the latest study, believes it provides a blueprint for schools looking to introduce the scheme. The findings of both studies are featured in a new guide which will be distributed to schools.
“This is the first study to explore why the Daily Mile might have been so successfully implemented,” Dr Ryde said.
“Our research suggests that this success can be attributed to the simple core intervention components: allowing the children to walk, jog or run; flexible delivery that supports teacher autonomy, and adaptability that suits the specific primary school context.”
Elaine Wyllie said: “I am delighted that the research has confirmed that the Daily Mile works best when it is put in place according to our core principles.”
The study ‘The Daily Mile: What factors are associated with its implementation success’ is published in PLOS One.