Staff and students compete in Meadowhead to Madrid fitness challenge after football trip is cancelled

Pupils and staff at a Sheffield school are ‘travelling’ to Madrid as part of a unique lockdown fitness challenge.
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The PE department at Meadowhead School was due to take over 100 students on a football trip to Madrid this Easter, but this was cancelled due to the coronavirus.

Instead, the whole school community have been getting active by joining a ‘Meadowhead to Madrid’ challenge set up by the school’s head of PE, Marcie Dunbar.

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She said the challenge was created to boost physical and mental wellbeing and has proven a hit, with lots of families now participating.

Meadowhead School Meadowhead School
Meadowhead School
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“We trying to make a positive out of the negative,” Ms Dunbar said. “It’s a staff versus student challenge that was set up via Instagram to see who would be the first to reach Madrid.

“So, we set the competition out really to build positive relationships between students and staff as well and using social media to try and promote health and wellbeing, sport and physical activity and it’s been really popular.”

Each day the youngsters and school staff are asked to track the distance they cover during their daily exercise, whether it be running, walking, cycling, or other forms of activity, as they compete to see who can cover 1,223 miles first – the exact distance between Sheffield and Madrid.

The staff and students at Meadowhead School are taking part in a 'Meadowhead to Madrid' fitness challenge inspired by this year's football trip which was cancelled because of the coronavirusThe staff and students at Meadowhead School are taking part in a 'Meadowhead to Madrid' fitness challenge inspired by this year's football trip which was cancelled because of the coronavirus
The staff and students at Meadowhead School are taking part in a 'Meadowhead to Madrid' fitness challenge inspired by this year's football trip which was cancelled because of the coronavirus
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They then send it to the Meadowhead PE Instagram page, along with some evidence, with the total for each team updated on a daily basis so they can keep track of who is winning.

Ms Dunbar added: “We’ve had over 100 different students take part and over 40 different members of staff. Actually, the staff are only about 30 miles away from Madrid so I think we’re going to beat the students!”

“We’ve had lots of people rowing, some out on their bikes, others running and walking as well. We didn’t want to just open it up to the footballers who were going on the trip, we’ve done it for the whole school.

“It’s not just the sporty students who are getting involved, it’s been a whole range of students and it’s been brilliant to see how keen they are to send in their evidence showing the distance they’ve covered.”

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