Liverpool schoolteacher visits 20 local schools while running 26 miles for Sport Relief

A Liverpool schoolteacher said he hoped he had brought communities together after visiting over 20 schools while running the equivalent of a marathon around the city in aid of Sport Relief.

Mr Kelly said: “The initial thinking behind this challenge was bringing schools and more importantly pupils together. I also felt that it was important to celebrate and identify the communities that our schools are such an important part of!

“I had small groups of children from various schools accompanied by teachers, headteachers, governors come along and do a small stretch of the run with me.

“It was great to meet some of the pupils and ask them a little bit about different schools and Sport Relief.”

Peter started at Garston Community Centre at 9am before heading down Booker Avenue to Mossley Hill. He then headed back out of the city to Knotty Ash in time for the Lord Mayor’s visit before taking in schools in West Derby, Tuebrook and Kensington. Finally Peter visited Lister Juniors to conclude the 26-mile run.

Mr Kelly said: “Schools asked me to take part in their Sport Relief activities.

“A few requested I join in the mile with children on the school yard or field, others asked me to join in a whole school’s dance! I was really keen to get involved in anything the school was doing to get pupils active.

“I had a friend following around on his bike to make sure we had contact with the next school and also updating the Twitter page @MrPAKelly1 so schools and pupils could track progress across the course of the day.”

Peter has already attracted the support of his former teaching mentor and now deputy of Dovedale Primary school who said: “I wasn’t surprised when Peter told me about his idea for this challenge. I knew pupil involvement would be at the core. That has always been the underlying principle behind everything that he does.  He cares – always has and always will.

“I am extremely proud of him and how he has managed to involve the local community cohesively whilst supporting this worthwhile charity.”

Peter had been in training for only four weeks and said: “This has been a real challenge, I underestimated the distance slightly but I did not want to leave any schools out that were keen to support the challenge! But I am sure it was all worth it to raise money for Sport Relief as well as bringing Liverpool’s communities and schools together in raising awareness about being active and forging links.

“I could not be more grateful to all the teachers, pupils, friends and family that have supported me!

“It is important as teachers that we give our pupils positive role models and show them positive behaviours that they can replicate. Many seasoned educators would argue this challenge does not benefit children academically however in my opinion many teachers would say that our job is to develop the whole child and allow them to understand the values of being a good person- I believe that is exactly what this challenge did”.

Over 1000 children were active for Sports Relief right across the city on the day.