Mansfield students clock up 3,500 miles in post-lockdown wellbeing challenge

Mansfield pupils completed more than 3,500 miles in a wellbeing challenge.

The students from all year groups at Farmilo Primary School and Mapplewells Primary School were challenged with completing Mansfield

Town Football Club’s Sky Bet League Two journey by walking, running or cycling.

The virtual challenge was aimed at improving wellbeing and health as students continued to be split between a staggered return to the classroom and working from home before the summer break.

The students from all year groups were challenged with completing Mansfield Town Football Club’s Sky Bet League Two journey.

The pupils rose to the challenge and smashed their original target of 854.4

miles over the three-week period, completely a whopping 3,753 miles between them.

Jordan Ferrer, Premier League Primary Stars coordinator at Mansfield Town Football in the Community, said: “We’re absolutely blown away by how well the children have responded to the challenge.

"It’s proved a great way for children to stay active but at the same time stay

safe while meeting with their friends for bike rides and walks.

“The whole pandemic has been a strange one for everyone but none more so than for young children who went from being able to play with their friends daily, to having to isolate without really understanding what was happening.

“That can have a massive impact on mental health and wellbeing, which is why we set this challenge up with two of our partner schools who really embraced the idea, motivated the children and achieved phenomenal results.

“Sometimes saying to a child "let’s go for a walk or a bike ride” can be met with a reluctance but by incorporating a target a target, a milestone, within a competition – that really makes the difference and that’s been the feedback from families, which we’re really proud of.”

Titled ‘The Race to Wembley’ – the idea was to hold a virtual cup final between the schools during the final week of term to determine the overall winner.

That task went to teachers, who were given ten seconds of time for every 90 miles their school completed to perform keepy-ups.

Overall, students from Mapplewells Primary clocked up 1,780 miles, while students from Farmilo Primary travelled a touch further, achieving a total of 1,973 miles over three weeks.