THREE east Tynedale schools are ahead of the game after the Government announced plans to encourage children to walk a mile each day.

The new measures were announced at the end of last month, in an aim to halve the number of obese children by 2030.

One of the plan’s ambitions is to encourage every primary school in the country to adopt a daily ‘active mile’ initiative.

But children in Mickley, Stocksfield and Riding Mill have already been working hard on a project which incorporates this goal, along with other measures to combine a healthy lifestyle with curriculum learning.

Children at Mickley, Broomley and Broomhaugh First Schools have been filling in blank maps of their villages with local landmarks, such as houses, churches and other areas of interest.

To encourage them to walk a mile each day, two pedometers were purchased for each school, and the children are learning about distances during walks around their villages to add to their maps.

The project also encourages learning about local history, sustainable transport and keeping the environment clean and tidy.

Anne Dale, county councillor for Broomhaugh, Mickley and Stocksfield, said the idea had stemmed from the county council’s roll-out of 20mph speed limits outside schools.

“From there I thought we should explain why there is a 20mph limit,” she explained.

“Its about encouraging walking to school and being able to do it safely, and having healthy lifestyles.

“We wanted them to think about where there were walking routes in their villages, and that’s when I came up with the suggestion of a map.”

The completed maps are nearing completion and a company has been appointed to digitalise them to be printed, with the hope they can be used as a resource by the whole village communities.

Coun. Dale said one possibility would be to put all three maps together to create a detailed map of the whole parish, so people locally would be become more aware of the walking and cycling routes around them.

The project will continue after the maps have been completed, as each of the schools have bought a giant magnet board on which magnets representing houses, cycling routes and points of interest can be moved around for classroom learning.

Headteacher at Mickley First School Andy Hudson, said: “Through the project the children have become more aware of the distances of walks around the village, as well as finding out about things in the village they might not have paid attention to before. It is connecting them with their local area in a way that means it’s not just some somewhere to walk or cycle through, but somewhere they have an important role to play.”