A BRITISH primary school has no obese pupils – because they are all made to run or walk a mile EVERY day.
St Ninians primary school in Stirling, Scotland, started the scheme three years ago and it has been so successful experts are seeing whether it should be rolled out nationally.
Rain or shine, teachers send the pupils out to run for a mile every day in a bid to improve fitness and increase concentration in class.
Now researchers at Stirling University are looking at the benefits of every pupil in Britain doing it.
Many other primary schools have already followed the example, with 30 schools in Stirling alone running the scheme.
One in ten children are obese by the time they start school at four or five according to recent figures.
The school’s headteacher, Elaine Wyllie, said: “I get at least two emails a day from other schools and local authorities asking how we do it. The thought of children across the country running every day because of something we’ve done is phenomenal.
“It’s a commonsense approach to children’s fitness, which is free and easy. The most important thing is that the children really enjoy it, otherwise you couldn’t sustain it. They come back in bright-eyed and rosy-cheeked, how children used to look. It’s joyous to see.”
The results, the school says, have been amazing with no children being obese.
A study is now being undertaken to compare kids from St Ninians with pupils from another local school that hasn’t started the scheme yet.
Dr Colin Moran, who is leading the study, told the Guardian: “The children [at St Ninians] don’t seem to have problems with obesity; they seem happier and staff say they settle into lessons faster, so we designed a study that would test all of these things.”
via The Sun
