Teachers’ perspectives of the barriers and facilitators to The Daily Mile

Article title: The Daily Mile: Teachers’ perspectives of the barriers and facilitators to the delivery of a school-based physical activity intervention.

The Scottish Collaboration for Public Health and Policy (SCPHRP), who are based within the University of Edinburgh, interviewed 8 Local Authority primary schools investigating how teachers deliver The Daily Mile, the perceived benefits and the barriers and facilitators to participation.

They identified a number of facilitators to adopting The Daily Mile, including:

  • Most teachers were positive and enthusiastic, and perceived The Daily Mile to be beneficial to the children’s health and fitness
  • Some speculated that Daily Mile participation led to improvements in asthma symptoms
  • Some teachers perceived enhanced classroom concentration and behaviour
  • ~50% of teachers agreed that The Daily Mile provides a unique opportunity to build rapport with the children

Barriers to participation which were identified include:

  • Inadequate all-weather running surfaces
  • Impact that participating has on learning time

They conclude that The Daily Mile appears to be a valuable addition to the school day, however important context-specific barriers to delivery of The Daily Mile exist, which should be considered when implementing the programme in schools.

Read the full article online, published in BMJ Open on 4th February 2019.