Should kids run a mile a day?

The Daily Mile is a programme for primary school children, that gets them to spend 15 minutes jogging or running at their own pace during the school day. The programme’s name comes from the fact that for most children, fifteen minutes of running will see them covering about one mile. The initiative, which is over and above timetabled breaks and PE classes, has been adopted by 10,500 schools and nurseries world-wide. But until recently there have been no large scale studies looking at the impact of the programme. Researchers from the University of Birmingham, with the help of 40 Birmingham schools, set out to fill this gap. Megan McGregor spoke to Emma Frew, one of the authors from the University of Birmingham, about what they found...