Hundreds of Dundee pupils descended on Baxter Park to help celebrate the 10th birthday of The Daily Mile.
Over 800 pupils from across the city’s primary schools took part took part in what was the largest ever mass Daily Mile – an initiative that encourages children to exercise for 15 minutes every day.
The Daily Mile was founded by former head teacher Elaine Wyllie in 2012 and has since grown into a worldwide movement with more than three million children taking part across 87 countries.
And with Team GB athletes and politicians among those taking part in the event on Thursday, we caught up with some of the Dundee pupils at Baxter Park to hear how they enjoy getting involved.
Watch highlights of The Daily Mile Dundee event below:
The excitement builds
Among the hundreds of pupils gearing up to take part in The Daily Mile in Dundee were Clepington Primary School pupils Aleena Ahmed and Chantelle Cerven.
The P6 pupils spoke of their excitement getting to see other schools, as well as what they enjoyed most about taking part in exercise.
Aleena said: “I enjoy doing (The Daily Mile) but I’ve never done it when it’s this big, I’ve just done it round the school.
“I’ve got friends from other schools and it’s good to see them having fun here as well.”
Chantelle added: “When I go out I like seeing the nature and if you go out early in the morning you can see bunnies and deers and it’s really cute to see.
“Wildlife is really interesting.”
Pupils from Glebelands Primary School were also taking part in the Dundee event and Talia Younger and Amber Sattar – both in primary four – were eager to get started.
“I’m a little bit nervous about running but I’ll be having fun with my friends”, Talia said.
“We’ve not really done something like this before! I like exercising and keeping heathy.”
Amber added: “I’m really excited about the Daily Mile because I like keeping healthy and on Sundays I always used to come here to play.
“The best thing about today is celebrating the anniversary!”
How it all began
Elaine started the Daily Mile when she was the head teacher at St Ninians Primary School in Stirling.
Concerned by the children’s lack of fitness, classes were encouraged to run around the school field for 15 minutes a day to improve their overall health.
Since its humble beginnings, the initiative has gone global and research shows it has helped improve children’s cognition and wellbeing, as well as having a positive impact on attitudes towards physical activity.
Elaine said: “The Daily Mile has become something that benefits the whole child, both physically and mentally.
“When it started we didn’t know what was going to happen but actually the mental health benefits started almost on day one and the physical benefits a few weeks later.
“The key thing was if the kids didn’t like it then it would’ve stopped but the children wanted to keep it.”
Despite the initial success of the project, Elaine admits she never saw the success of The Daily Mile coming.
She added: “In our school we saw that it was something that any school could do but none of us ever thought we’d be in Dundee 10 years later celebrating the 10th birthday.
“We are sponsored by INEOS and they created The Daily Mile Foundation and along with the teachers across the world they have helped make this happen.”
See more pictures from the event below
