The Daily Mile – how 15 minutes a day are saving children from health disasters

The Scottish school that asked primary pupils to do 15 minutes of exercise every day started a global trend – and research suggests it really is transforming lives

It was an 80-year-old volunteer who prompted Elaine Wylie, the then headteacher of St Ninians primary school in Stirling, to reappraise the fitness of the children in her school. “Your children are not fit,” the volunteer told her. Wylie was stung by the comment, even though she suspected it was true. The PE teacher confirmed it. “Most children these days are exhausted by the warm-up,” she said.

That same afternoon, Wylie decided to send a PE class she was supervising outside to see if they could run around the playing field. “By the end, most of them were doubled up and had a stitch,” she says. “It was a shocking sight.”

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2rYGVSN