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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Friday, 23 October 2015. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
CHILDREN from the Hendreds CE School in Oxfordshire are gearing up for their annual cross country running event with regular 10-minute runs during the school day. The school is following in the running steps of St Ninian's Primary School in Stirling, which has made national headlines with its 'daily mile' in which children put down their pencils and run a mile every day.
The running is proven to help with fitness, concentration and prevent obesity. At the Hendreds, the running is done on top of a varied PE curriculum that includes judo and gymnastics.
Chris Savage, who teaches years four and five, said: "We have been running November cross country running events on the land of a local farmer who has two children at the school.
He clears any animals off the field and we get sponsorship every year," says Chris.
"We feel we are building a mental toughness in the children through the regular running.
Although it's only a mile, that can feel a long way if you are seven or eight.
Regular running makes them more robust and in terms of fitness, it will be interesting to see the results of our cross country this year. "The children are called to run just before or just after break, so the exercise does not interfere with lessons and to complete a mile, they must run 9. 5 laps of the football pitch.
"We get them to run as far as they can within the 10 minutes and they record their own distance and see if they can better themselves.
It's a determined approach where they are all trying their hardest and the main thing is they are all up for it. "