BORDON Infant School pupils will spend more time being active after signing up to a Hampshire scheme that encourages youngsters to do more walking, jogging and running.

Set up this spring, the Golden Mile aims to increase the amount of time each day pupils from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are active.

The scheme encourages pupils to walk, skip, hop, jog or run around a measured distance - the Golden Mile track - in the school grounds.

The initiative is coordinated by the Energise Me county sports partnership, with support from East Hampshire District Council’s Healthy New Town programme, to ensure the children of Whitehill and Bordon are active.

The Golden Mile is a safe, simple and measurable physical-activity initiative accessible to all pupils regardless of age or ability.

Any infant, junior, primary or special school can sign up for the Golden Mile.

By participating in the project, schools provide their pupils with greater access to physical activity and, hopefully, witness the benefits of regular activity with improved health, classroom behaviour and concentration levels.

The Golden Mile is free to all schools that sign up with Energise Me. Schools are required to send a named coordinator to a training session to get started.

Organisers say that it is simple to implement within the school day and Golden Mile monitors (pupils) run the initiative within the school.

Ferris Cowper (Con, Grayshott), the district council’s portfolio holder for Whitehill and Bordon, said: “The Golden Mile is another great scheme that is being introduced in Whitehill and Bordon to make sure children are keeping active.

“We would like to see all schools in Whitehill and Bordon sign up to the project as they are all part of a Healthy New Town so it is important they get involved in these schemes and ensure their pupils are doing a minimum of 60 minutes of exercise per day. We are pleased to see that Bordon Infant School has signed up and look forward to seeing it being implemented very soon.”