Before the project started staff measured the perimeter of the school grounds to determine the distance travelled per lap. Calculations were then made to determine how many laps children would have to run or walk to cover one mile. Milestones were set to achieve a series of bronze (15 miles), silver (20 miles) and gold (26 miles) awards.

To create awareness of the challenge and encourage participation staff used class assemblies to speak to pupils in order to gain their input and suggestions. Pedometers were purchased and mileage sheets were created to record the distance travelled by the pupils. Every lunch time the pedometers were signed out to the pupils and the number of steps recorded at the end of the session, this was then calculated into miles and recorded.

Staff produced certificates to mark achieving the awards and all pupils have achieved gold status with some pupils even completing two marathons! A presentation was made during assemblies to congratulate pupils on their achievements and a special award was given to the child who had completed the furthest distance. Children were allowed to keep their pedometers over the summer holidays to encourage them to saty active.

The Schools Learning Mentor said “It was inspiring for teachers and other pupils in the school to see the year 6’s every lunchtime motivated, active and working as a group to achieve their awards – this is something we will certainly repeat again next year”

There were plenty of creative activities on offer, including making papier mache heads and rocket sculptures with art tutor Joanne, jewellery making, and nail art and manicure. The children also got active with street dance, mini Olympics, and parachute and ball games.

LEAF (Local Enterprises Around Food) gave children the opportunity to taste lots of different fruit and vegetables that they had grown in their allotments, and to plant herbs and vegetables, with the children being able to take home the plant pots they had made and decorated.

As well as activities and games, healthy snacks were provided for all.

“Everyone had a brill time,” said Julie, who helped to organise and run the sessions.

Work will begin to lop back the trees across the footbridge to allow more light from the existing street lights to get through.  This will hopefully make the footbridge more attractive and feel safer so more people will want to use the bridge and increase their levels of walking.  Keep checking back for before and after photos!

Trail Tales is a programme developed specifically for children and young people and provides schools with packs which include workbooks and stickers. Schools across Sheffield have reported how useful and interesting the project is and is a great way of encouraging children and young people to become active.

Schools involved in Get Walking, Keep Walking and Trail Tales report an increase in levels of physical activity amongst their pupils, and have recognised the contribution it can make to the 3 hour offer which all school aged children should be accessing during the school day.

For more information visit www.ramblers.org.uk

That’s why the Chamber are doing a five-a-side tournament which you and your company can get involved with. By working with Powerleague the tournament will run through October and should bring out your competitive streak! There’ll also be a female only tournament, which is a first in Sheffield corporate five-a-side competitions.

If you’d like more information e-mail george.fullerton@scci.org.uk. You might be the next Wayne Rooney and not even realise it!

So most of the summer holidays is spent catching up with things from the end of term, planning for the coming term, ordering stock, making sure monitoring is up to date and coming up with exciting activities for the next year. It’s also a good time to take a bit of holiday and make the most of the sunshine!

Hopefully the next blog will contain a bit more excitement, but for now i will leave it at that.

Through delivery of the Sheffield Let’s Change4Life Programme the school have accessed funding to make changes which have been led through the School Council. As well as involving pupils parents have also been consulted via questionnaires. Views on the dining room and schools meals were sought which provided the basis for the School Nutrition Action Group Plan.

One of the key areas of focus for the school was to improve the dining room environment, the school purchased new tables, chairs and a waste trolley ordered to match the red and yellow school colours. The school plans to extend these improvements to the outdoor eating and sitting area so that pupils can enjoy their lunch outside in the warmer months.

Others changes the school has made include moving to a single choice menu, filling the water jugs from the water cooler rather than the tap, introducing new dining room rules and looking at promoting healthy lunchboxes.

Next academic year the school has plans to develop a their healthy lunch box work further, possible introduce plates and bowls rather than using flight trays and looking at strategies for increasing consumption of vegetables and cutting down on waste.

So far two pilot programmes have taken place running with parents of children from Fox Hill Primary, Southey Green Primary, Mansel Primary and Meynell Primary Schools.

Participants reported that they had made a number changes that were making a difference to their familes lifestyles. Amongst other things familes reported eating less sugar, particulary sugary drinks and cereals, making healthly snack swaps, reading food labels, buying smaller plates, eating smaller portions and finding ways for their family to be more active.

A further 4 pilot programmes will be delivered during the autumn term and a 3 day facilitator training course is planned to take place in September.

End of term also means meetings with different sustrans teams; this time a trip upto Newcastle to catch up on a few things, but like most Bike It activites, there is normally a good chance to have a bit of fun too, in this instance it was a chance to play a bit of bike polo, not that easy on a folding bike! There was also a great day spent in Leicester, which as well as a meeting involved some bike skills sessions and a fantastic bicycle history talk too.

Back to Sheffield, there was a bit of dodging the rain on bike rides – Acres Hill had a trip out to Shirebrook Valley for a picnic, it was a great trip, but we did get a soaking on the way back! Meynell Went for a biking picnic upto greno woods and managed to stay dry, as well as making it up the very long climb from the school to the woods.

Some of the time has been rewarding pupils effort too; Hunters Bar got a very special visitor as winners of the Beat Peat competition, Downhill Mountain Bike Worlds Champion and legend of the sport Steve Peat came into school to chat to the kids, answer a lot of  questions, teach a jump session in the playground, as well as getting mobbed for autographs!

big thanks to Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative for providing the school with some great prizes too

In addition to the overall school winner, we also had a prize giving at the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative for the fastest boys and girls in Sheffield in the Beat Peat competition. They came along with some very proud parents to be presented with bikes and gift vouchers, kindly provided by the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative.

Last week also saw some great competitions going on up at Parkwood Springs, for the inaugural schools cycling championships. With pupils taking part in cross country racing, cycle speedway and trail challenges as well as getting mountain bike skills sessions too.

But for now it is back to entering data and catching up with paperwork; enjoy the holidays!