New partnership with The Daily Mile Foundation to inspire half a million more children to be active across England  

The new partnership, launched today at a primary school in Birmingham, will lead on inspiring more children in schools across England to take part in regular physical activity. 

This builds on an existing partnership between LME and The Daily Mile Foundation, which has encouraged more than 450,000 children in Daily Mile registered schools in London to run, wheel or walk during the school day since 2018.

The new partnership will focus on extending the impact of The Daily Mile across all of England, supported by the Foundation’s funding of three new regional roles in the West Midlands, the north-west, and London and the south-east, and aims to engage more than 500,000 children in The Daily Mile.

Nick Bitel, CEO of the London Marathon Group, said: “Our work with The Daily Mile Foundation to date has already meant that hundreds of thousands of children are now regularly doing The Daily Mile and benefiting from its transformative effects. With this funding from the London Marathon Foundation to roll out the initiative to schools across England, hundreds of thousands more individuals and communities will benefit too.”

Fiona Paterson, UK & Ireland Partnership Manager at The Daily Mile Foundation, said: “This partnership is about a shared commitment to getting more children across England more active more often. Thanks to the London Marathon Foundation’s funding, The Daily Mile Foundation and London Marathon Events will support schools across the country to create active and healthy learning environments where children can thrive.”

The ambition of the partnership is to improve the health and wellbeing of children today, and lay the groundwork for a healthier, more active future for generations to come. With Sport England’s latest Active Lives Children and Young People Survey finding fewer than half of children are achieving the Chief Medical Officers’ recommended 60 minutes or more of daily physical activity, and following the Prime Minister’s announcement in June of a new approach to school activity, expanding The Daily Mile across England can play an important role in addressing these issues. 

The Daily Mile has been shown to significantly improve children’s fitness, boost their alertness and concentration in class, and help them take greater responsibility for their physical and mental wellbeing.

One school already enjoying the benefits of The Daily Mile is Woodthorpe Junior and Infant School in Birmingham. To mark the launch of LME and the Foundation becoming an Official Implementation Partner of The Daily Mile in England, guests including athlete Mark Lewis Francis MBE and Elaine Wyllie MBE, founder of The Daily Mile Foundation, visited the school to see The Daily Mile’s impact on their pupils. The pair presented the school with a Daily Mile Children Fit For Life Award, to celebrate their commitment to improving children’s health and happiness through physical activity. 

Matt Trevor, Deputy Headteacher at Woodthorpe Junior and Infant School, said: “Our school recognises the importance of physical activity on both the physical and mental wellbeing of our pupils. The Daily Mile is an embedded initiative at Woodthorpe that offers our children a safe, inclusive, active and fun part to their school day. The Daily Mile has had a direct impact upon improving both attendance and punctuality of those involved, as well as positively influencing levels of anxiety of our pupils."

To complement the funding of three new regional roles across England, the Foundation has also allocated £66,000 to transform small, outdoor spaces in more than 30 schools in areas of high deprivation in England and Wales. New ‘Active Playgrounds’ will be designed with colourful markings to create engaging, playful spaces to encourage physical activity for thousands of children throughout the school day.