Thousands of North East kids lace up their trainers to take part in the 'Daily Mile'

Hundreds of thousands of children across the country have been donning their trainers and doing their bit to get fit. 

The Daily Mile is back, getting young people in classrooms to be active at the same time, virtually joining the national exercise event.

1,700 schools across the country took part in “England does The Daily Mile” with schools in the North East joining in, in an effort to raise awareness for children's mental health and wellbeing.

Among them were Year Two pupils at Holywell First School in Northumberland.They told ITV Tyne Tees they really enjoy the 10 minutes they spend running around the school’s playground.“I love it because it gets me all healthier and more energised, for the day”“It gives me more energy in my brain.”“Some people think it's a race but it's not. I like it because you can run a lot.”“It feels a special thing to do because it makes us healthy.”

The school’s headteacher, Sarah Brett said the daily exercise doesn’t just keep the kids fit, but helps them in class as well.“It can make a difference between them learning the objective of that lesson, or not."

Northumberland’s Daily Mile coordinator, Gary Young, said the event had been a big success. “Over the country we've got over 1700 schools nationally taking part, including over half a million children and staff.

The real sign of success is with one of the seven year olds taking part at Holywell First School today, who said he’s going to start running on weekends as well.

“I've got a big field out my front, with a big circle path,” he said. ”So I'm going to run around them three times every Sunday and Saturday.”