2 July 2020
Mills Hill Primary School in Chadderton, Greater Manchester, has benefitted from a further £5,000 donation from Sigma, which has funded a running track around the school.
The school which sits close to Simple Life’s Baytree Lane development was previously gifted with £8,000 from Sigma to purchase better playground equipment. This donation saw an addition of a new ‘scrap yard play’ shed and purchase additional sports equipment.
Over the past 12 months, the year three to six pupils at Mills Hill have been running laps of the playground, whatever the weather, to improve their fitness levels. It was this that sparked the idea to create a mile track, which has now encouraged the rest of the year groups to get involved in running.
The running was inspired by the Scottish Daily Mile initiative, created by Elaine Wyllie, a head teacher who was concerned about the pupils’ lack of fitness in her school. Elaine introduced The Daily Mile in 2012 as a sustainable way of combating inactivity, and it was so successful that the Scottish Government wrote to every primary school in the country recommending that they implement the scheme too. In addition, in August 2016 the UK government’s Childhood Obesity strategy identified and supported The Daily Mile’s contribution towards the recommended hour that children should spend taking daily exercise in school.
Ian Mason, Head Teacher at Mills Hill Primary School comments: “The children’s daily walks around the playground eventually developed into them running three times a week and it’s brilliant to see that fitness levels have improved.
“We encourage our children to be both active physically and to be creative with their environment. The much-needed money from Sigma has transformed our playground and facilities and allowed our pupils to reap the benefits of keeping fit.”
The donation is part of Sigma’s promise to support the local communities in which it develops new homes.
