Queen Elizabeth Public School – Renfrew, Canada
Queen Elizabeth Public School
Fact File
- Where we’re based: Renfrew, Ontario in Canada
- School roll: 300 students
- A brief description of your school: A small town school (population of Renfrew is 8500). Children come from the town and the surrounding rural area, which is a mix of farms and forested land.
- Where do you run your Daily Mile? We run around the perimeter of our yard. The perimeter measures 500 metres, so we encourage our students to complete 3 laps which is approximately 1 mile. Along the way, the students also tackle obstacles such as leaping over boulders, climbing over tractor tires, and swinging across monkey bars.
- Month/Year we started The Daily Mile: September 2016
Anne Lefebvre, Grade 6 teacher, talks us through Queen Elizabeth Public School’s experience of The Daily Mile, thus far.
How many, and which, children in your school complete The Daily Mile?
We have two classes doing The Daily Mile, this year – Grade 5/6 and Grade 6 (10-12 year old students).
Please, describe your school’s experience of The Daily Mile to date.
The two of us (Joy Pilgrim, Grade 5/6 teacher, and I, Grade 6 teacher) started The Daily Mile in September 2016 with the goal of improving our students’ fitness. We had observed in previous years’ gym classes that many of our students displayed a lack of cardio endurance and weak muscles.
By their own admission, many of our students, despite living in a rural area with access to acres of lane to play in, spend hours each day on some type of screen. But they haven’t lost their love of play. So we created our version of The Daily Mile, using our school yard and the obstacles in it, to improve our students’ fitness. We included obstacles on our running course because we wanted to also develop our students’ strength, agility and coordination in addition to their endurance.
We have seen great improvements and and our students love to have their Daily Mile break each day. We inserted it into the middle of a two-hour block of learning, so the timing works well. They come back inside refreshed and ready to get back to work. Since winter has arrived, the snow creates its own set of obstacles and has made the running much more challenging, but our students have persevered. We are very glad that we’ve introduced this programme!
Any comments or quotes from students?
Brandon – “I can now do 2 laps of non-stop running / jogging. Probably the first week of The Daily Mile I couldn’t even do a full lap without stopping for a rest and that’s a huge improvement.”
Cameron – “I have improved! At the start of the year I could barely run 1 lap; now I’m running 3-4 laps and for me that is a lot. Also, I’m alot more active and I’m getting faster. Thanks Daily Mile!”
Aiden, on his Winter Goal – “I will power through the snow and do three laps!”
Maria – “I’m getting more exercise every day and it’s really fun to do. I love it.”
Zoe – “Through all the sweating, I’m having a lot of fun!”
Danica – “I have improved so much in the last few months. Running is so much easier than it used to be because it helps you learn to run longer.”
Landen – “My favourite part about The Daily Mile in the winter now is the snow banks, because they get bigger every time and it gets harder every time.”
Oliver – “I like getting to talk to my friends while running. It makes me feel refreshed, free and happy.”
Chloe – “It makes me feel good because I know I’m working towards progress.”
Danica – “The Daily Mile makes me feel happy, good, and proud of myself to exercise. The challenging part about The Daily Mile is pushing yourself to do more and more each day. I think I have progressed well because I am doing more laps than usual. The Daily Mile has helped me improve in my physical activity and school work.”
Calen – “…And, I will keep on running on and on and I will never give up.”
Visit Queen Elizabeth Public School’s website for more information.