The Golden Mile - Teachers FAQ's

The Golden Mile is a walking, jogging or running initiative to help children of all ages and abilities keep fit and sustain a healthy lifestyle. It works in a SIMPLE way so that ALL children in KS 1, 2 & 3 can exercise in a non-competitive way and it all takes place in the SAFE environment of the schools own grounds.

It promotes fun and self achievement and can slot around the school timetable to suit.

As a health & fitness initiative, it is the foundation of all sport and active lifestyles.

The aim is to encourage EVERY child to complete 50 miles in an academic year.

How does our school benefit?

Golden Mile offers the greatest flexibility & longevity of ANY health & fitness initiative in schools today. Its popularity is based on its SIMPLICITY & FLEXIBILITY. Staff input is limited, no training is required and YOUR SCHOOL chooses WHEN & HOW it fits into your timetable.

All the pupils engaging in the Golden Mile will be healthier, fitter, and enjoy higher levels of concentration.

Some schools & Ofsted have reported higher attendance, improved behaviour and academic achievement as a result of participating in the Golden Mile.

Can all pupils participate at same time?

Some schools have space to allow ALL pupils to participate together.

Others allow year groups / classes to participate on specified days or break times.

Many schools allow walkers, joggers or runners to participate in separate sessions - this sometimes helps progressions.

Hundreds of teachers also JOIN IN, and participate in the Golden Mile - Click Here to Watch the Video.

Is this open to ALL pupils?

The Golden Mile allows pupils of ALL ages & abilities, to participate and operates in many SEN schools.

Every child needs to be fit & healthy, so we encourage every pupil to participate.

Online access and support is limited to the number of pupil you enrol.

What resources does the school receive?

Secure access to website which includes;

Lesson Plans

Distance recorder

Bronze certificate for achieving 10 miles

Silver certificate for achieving 25 miles

Gold certificate for achieving 50 miles

End of year certificate for EVERY child regardless of distance

Progress reports (individual / class / school / partnership / county / UK)

Automatic email and certificates with week’s top distances / most improved in EVERY CLASS

Progress cards to complete between web updates

Class progress Wall Chart

Monthly newsletter

Teachers message board to share good practice / lesson plan ideas etc.

What about pupil’s resources?

Healthy recipe cards from the World’s Top Footballers backed by the World Heart Federation

Fun Exercise games to play with families

Competitions

Progress cards to log their laps and miles

What time of year does the Golden Mile take place?

This is where the scheme is so flexible because it’s up to you!
Unlike every other 'get fit' scheme, you can slot Golden Mile around weather, building work, busy school schedules and staffing issues.
You can even use Golden Mile as preparation for some of these 'one off' schemes like the TESCO mile or inter school competitions.

YOUR EASY STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO REGISTERING FOR GOLDEN MILE;

How do I register my school to take part in the Golden Mile?

The Golden Mile is all about simplicity, and that includes setting it up in your school....

Click on “Don’t have a Golden Mile account? Register Now”

Choose your school from the drop down list

Enter the number of classes you wish to take part in the Golden Mile

(Remember, you will only get access and resources for the classes registered)

Enter your email address and name... It’s as easy as that!

How can we pay for the Golden Mile?

Your school / group can pay for the Golden Mile in various ways;

1. As you create your booking, an invoice will automatically be created and emailed to you. It will also be visible on your home page. Some schools / groups just pay this from normal funds.

2. Others choose to take the ‘Golden Mile Fund Raising’ option, which provides a way of paying for the Golden Mile from the funds you receive from sponsorship.

3. Another popular way to fund the Golden Mile is to ask parents for a donation. Feedback is usually that parents are pleased to help their child participate and if you have some parents that are unable to contribute, the group could ‘sponsor’ this child’s participation. (click here to see letter to parents) – this should provide a link to the parents letter which we have done.

What do I do once I have registered my school?

AT ANY TIME after registering for the Golden Mile, you can;

Simply enter the names of the classes taking part and the teachers name and email address of each of those classes.

(This is important, as class teachers will be sent a very simple HOW TO guide so they can register their class simply).

Fill in the ‘lap length’ at your school

(If you haven’t measured this yet, then just type in a fictitious distance, although you can alter this figure at any time of the academic year if you wish to change the length of the lap for any reason)

Once each class/teacher has their password what do they do next?

Each teacher will be sent simple instructions on operating the Golden Mile.

All they will have to do, is at some point input the names of their pupils onto the secure site.

Once they have done this then they can start to record the distance of their pupils... simply by typing in how many laps they have competed - their distances will then be shown in km and miles!

YOUR EASY STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO REGISTERING YOUR PUPILS;

Are the pupils names secure once we have typed in their names?

Yes – the pupils names are visible only to the class teacher and the school administrator. To see the names, they will have to enter the email address matched by their secure password.

There is no other personal information of the children stored on the site.

YOUR STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO RECORDING PROGRESS;

Do all the teachers in my school have to use the internet to record their pupil’s laps?

No they don’t! You can still keep a check on what the pupils are doing with the wall chart but you will be missing out a bit!

The web site stores all the data, so no worries about losing cards during the year, as well as giving you reports at the touch of a button. These reports are great for rewarding progress, viewing class averages and even comparing to other schools nationally!

It is also the web site that automatically generates certificates for you to present to children, so NOT USING IT means you are not getting all the benefits.

Who inputs pupils’ laps on to the computer?

It’s up to you, it works really well when the PUPILS themselves do it, (often teachers use this as part of ICT lessons), but if you prefer, all of the below can do it on behalf of the pupil;

Class Teacher

Teaching Assistants

Parent helpers

It’s easy, it only takes a couple of minutes each week to do the whole class and the information and progress reports the website will give you on YOUR SCHOOL / EACH CLASS / EACH PUPIL are brilliant!

Just log in to the teachers page and type in the pupils laps! If you look to the right of their laps you will see that all the distances are calculated for you!

When do laps have to be input?

This is up to you each teacher or school. Here are a few simple ways to help you decide...

Each time pupils do their Golden Mile.

Gather all the pupils’ progress cards and input weekly or monthly.

Even if you don’t want to do it that regularly, you can even go back in time and choose the dates you want to input distances for.

Have your best Year Six pupils collect the progress cards from each class and input the data for you.

YOUR STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO SETTING UP YOUR OWN SCHOOL COURSE;

How do we design our Golden Mile course?

First of all you DO NOT need any equipment to set up your Golden Mile course... well just a measuring wheel!

Measuring out a lapped course means the Golden Mile is easy for you to keep an eye on & monitor the children while they do it.

It doesn’t matter what size your course is because once you have measured it, all you then have to do it type it onto your Golden Mile school web page and the calculations will be done for you.

Some schools have managed to do the Golden Mile in a SCHOOL HALL, others do it on a large field – it really is up to each school and the resources they have.

What equipment do I need to set up and do the Golden Mile?

You ONLY NEED a measuring wheel to set up the Golden Mile course.

If I want to change my course and the measurement is different, what do I do?

Change the course, measure the distance, then the school coordinator can tap it into the web page and hey presto – all distances from here on in will be calculated on the new lap length of your course.

How long will it take each child to complete 50 miles?

It will take on average 20 minutes for a child to walk one mile, so if the children do just 40 minutes per week, they should only take 25 weeks to complete 50 miles.

You will always have children who do much more though – and good for them!

Once again you need to try and keep this simple, and schools have different ways to record this. Why not try and hand out rubber bands to put round their wrists? - If a child has four bands then you know they have completed four laps. Or get the pupils who can’t take part for some reason to help. Some schools have even designed lap record sheets.

What do we do when the weather is bad?

The Golden Mile is brilliant because it is so flexible. If weather is bad – don’t do it! During good weather, children will have the chance to do it more regularly and achieve more miles. It is an all year round activity which cannot be stopped because of one bad week of weather!

Why do the pupils need to complete 50 miles?

Pupils can achieve as many miles as they want, but 50 is a great target and should be encouraged.

If pupils only do a small amount of miles, then they will not receive the healthy benefits and the great thing is that no child needs to be sporty to do it!

Pupils of all shapes and sizes can do the Golden Mile, many simply walk round and talk to friends while they do it – but at least they are active!

Are there any community benefits & parent interaction?

Many schools entrench Golden Mile into the fabric of the community, by allowing parents & family members to participate before or after school, ALONGSIDE their children - Click Here to Watch the Video

By using clever technology, parents can CHOOSE to receive monthly updates of THEIR child's progress.

Parents can also subscribe to a weekly SMS for more regular updates on progress.

How do I download the certificates?

When your pupils have reached 10, 25 & 50 miles, the class teacher will receive an automatic email to let them know!

The certificate will then be a download with their name on it, all you will have to do is print it off and present it to them in assembly!

I want to fund raise for our school through the Golden Mile, how do I do it?

The Golden Mile could easily be the biggest fund raising event in your school each year.

It is so easy to generate extra funds for your school, because you don’t have to organise YET ANOTHER fund raiser to get them. You are ALREADY doing the Golden Mile, so just utilise the fund raising element...

Simply add a fundraising pack when you register, (if you want to wait until later - you can do this on your school homepage).

You can download your fund raising pack for your school with full instructions.

Give every child one of the special Golden Mile fund raising letters and sponsor form.

Watch as the more miles your children walk jog or run, the more £’s your school generate!

I need to change my school details, how do I do this?

You can alter any personal details such as email address etc. On your Golden Mile homepage which will be visible every time you log on.