On Monday, Mr Lavery and Mrs McMullan were invited along to Stormont to participate in the briefing report on Children’s Physical Activity and Wellbeing, evidence for which came from research including some from The Daily Mile Initiative.
Mount Saint Michael’s registered for The Daily Mile in April 2018 and, with the help of Mrs Brenda McKay-Redmond, we had our launch day on 11th May 2018. From this date, our children have been running or walking for fifteen minutes at least three times each week, regardless of the weather. We have raised money for the Cancer Fund for Children and generated a running culture in school which has given many children the opportunity to participate in external running events. All this has led both Mr Lavery and Mrs McMullan to be members of The Daily Mile (NI) Network and earned our school ‘Champion School’ status. As a result, our children have attended official Daily Mile events in Belfast and also meet the founder Mrs Elaine Wyllie MBE.
Mr Lavery and Mrs McMullan have both spoken about how our children have benefitted from participating in The Daily Mile at The British Psychology Convention in April 2019 and a webinar for teachers in May 2021. On Monday, they ran The Daily Mile in front of Stormont, listened to the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt, Athletics NI CEO Elaine Grant and Elaine Wyllie MBE speak about the long term benefits of The Daily Mile.
With a few ideas in the planning, we are looking forward to what this academic year brings for The Daily Mile and our intentions to increase participation in running for the entire 15 minutes among our children and staff.
