Wigan pupils' End to End exercise mission

St John Fisher pupil Daniel Wedge and his dad Andrew Wedge taking part in the 874-mile exercise challenge

Year 7,8 and 9 pupils were encouraged to run, cycle or exercise the distance from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

The challenge took place to help pupils maintain a more healthy, mental and physical balance whilst schools remained closed.

PE teacher Beth Millman believes the challenge will help develop skills that pupils will take with them later in life.

Miss Millman said: “The idea was driven by the strong belief that our young people need to get away from their screens and do more physical activity.

“The benefits of which we have highlighted to our pupils when we have introduced the challenge to them.

“The challenge hits many of our curriculum goals which incorporate developing pupils holistically with the life skills and characteristics that future employers want to see like resilience, determination, self-belief, honesty and integrity.

“The reception has seemed positive and I would say momentum is building.”

The school is planning on maintaining challenges like this in the future to help pupils sustain a healthy lifestyle.

Miss Millman said: “We are going to continue it as part of our recovery curriculum because it does encompass so many areas that are essential.

“It links to the national curriculum, as well as having cross curricular links to health and well-being.

“It is also accessible to all as we enter this next, still ever-changing phase of education.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has presented the PE department at St John Fisher with many difficulties.

Miss Millman said: “We have faced numerous challenges; the main one being providing a broad and balanced curriculum with so many restrictions in place.

“Assessment, motivation, lack of space and the weather have all been contributing factors but ones that most PE departments are well used to dealing with.

“We have just had to learn to try and find other ways to physically educate our pupils.”

The school has already planned more face-to-face activity since the school reopened this week.

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