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West Bromwich school handed £1k cheque for daily mile runs

A school was presented with £1,000 for its work getting students active by taking part in a daily mile.

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At the school MP Tom Watson, Helen Penn the school well being leader, Gabbie Thorp the well being assistant and Elaine Wyllie the founder of the Daily Mile Foundation

MP Tom Watson and Elaine Wyllie, founder of the Daily Mile Foundation, visited Hargate Primary School in West Bromwich as the award was handed over.

The Daily Mile is a national scheme to get children out of the classroom for 15 minutes every day to run or jog, at their own pace, with their classmates, making them fitter, healthier, and more able to concentrate in the classroom.

Hargate Primary School has been taking part in the scheme - which they have dubbed The Hargate Mile - for around two years and Mr Watson recently pulled on his trainers to join students taking part in a few laps around the school field.

Richard Hipkiss, deputy headteacher at the school, said: "Our children do a daily mile to encourage their general fitness, they can talk to their peers or staff so the children can be supported.

"They go three times around the school field and have been doing it for around two years.

"It's been brilliant, our children are more active, we engage with them more as we can have a chat with them and it's helped their peers relationships and developing their confidence.

"The Daily Mile Foundation were recognising our commitment to doing the daily mile in school and how we were promoting it for all our children and staff.

"They presented a cheque for £1,000 and we're planning to use it to build outdoor PE equipment or an all-weather Daily Mile track.

"Tom comes in quite regularly and he was in school running with students not long ago. He spoke about how he believed it is great we're trying to get students exercising and talked about the benefits."

For more information about the initiative visit https://thedailymile.co.uk/

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