Over the past few years the London Marathon has set about bringing the spirit of the world’s biggest marathon into schools all across the UK. In an aim to create a buzz around running for our younger generations, the Mini Marathon event was born!
For the past 6 years, I have arranged multiple school fun runs; from the Sports Relief Mile, to a Junior ParkRun event in our local park, runs that have taken us through the school and even a virtual schools fun run.
With the main goal, to create and build a foundation for children to love, enjoy and look forward to movement.
Below are my top 3 tips for putting on your own school fun run and if this is something that really interests you then please think about joining our FREE webinar for the full list of 10 in-depth tips, tricks and ideas! (link below)
Tip #1
Give classes an aim
- Giving a class, house or year group a cumulative goal such as completing 100 laps in the time allowed will create a team goal. It takes the pressure off the children who can’t manage as many laps, but allows those who want to push themselves to press on and add more laps for their team. This makes it inclusive for everyone; from the children who don’t enjoy running much (yet!) to the kids who never want to stop!
- It helps the children to understand that every lap counts, every member of the team can have an impact, regardless of whether it’s 4 laps or 14.
- Your aim could be school wide – for example, could the whole school complete as many laps or miles to travel from London to Lapland.
Tip #2
Make the route exciting and different
- Designing the route is the fun bit. It can be as easy as laps around your field or something a bit more complex, such as going in and outside.
- An added element of fun for the kids is taking the route into places around the school that they wouldn’t normally go. It can make the event stand out in the school year for the children, creating a day that they will remember and always look forward to.
- Even running between the classrooms, passing their old classes or seeing where the ‘older’ children learn all adds to the excitement of run day!
Tip #3
Get the teachers out too
- Nothing motivates the children more than taking part alongside staff!
By giving them a chance to show they are ‘faster’ than their TA or to beat the PE teacher in the sprint, you are really showing them the fun side to movement. - The fun run is one of few sporting activities in school where the adults can safely take part alongside the students. It’s not about speed, it’s about having a good time, letting the children see the grown ups in an active situation, letting their guard down and demonstrating to the pupils that being active can be for everyone.
- You can even further incentivise the adults to join in with your run by making their laps count as 2 towards the class total…
Click here to sign your school up to the 2023 Mini London Marathon which is completely free and will make for a great day in your school!
teachersrunclub.com 