Stirlingshire head teacher’s Daily Mile idea spreads from Scotland to 30 more countries

Founder of The Daily Mile, Elaine Wyllie, has seen her idea adopted by more than 3,500 schools in 31 countries. And, she hopes, scientific research coming out soon will underline the fitness benefits for children and prompt more schools to start ‘a mile’ of their own.

Elaine, who started it all with just 15 minutes per day of running or jogging in a Stirlingshire school playground, has already seen it transform UK children’s health.

Recently, Elaine had a meeting with Professor Stephen Powis, new medical director for NHS England, as part of discussions aimed at getting England to follow the Scottish, Welsh and Irish governments in recommending schools do The Daily Mile.

Elaine explained, “The answer to the horrendous plague of obesity and physical inactivity lies in the schools. There has been no scalable, effective intervention on childhood obesity anywhere in the Western world. Getting that is the holy grail and we hope the science proves The Daily Mile may help.”

Meanwhile, the profile of The Daily Mile in the UK has rocketed this month, thanks to the backing of ITV. “Having ITV want to become involved is a massive thing,” said Elaine. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we’d achieve such exposure and have so much interest.”

A recent launch in Ireland has already lead to more than 80 schools registering. Other European countries involved include France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Italy and Greece. But the reach is ever-growing, with more countries in far-flung places signing up daily, including Honduras and Jamaica.