News and events

We’re delighted to now be offering the Leader in Running Fitness (LiRF) qualification for Jog Leaders in the form of blended learning. In response to this year’s covid restrictions, the coach education team worked hard to make much of the course content available online, with a shorter in-person session, carried out with covid precautions in place. More than 50 new jog leaders have completed the course via blended learning, with the forthcoming courses all fully booked. A big welcome to our newly-trained jog leaders! Our spring courses will be advertised in January – keep an eye on the website and social media for details.

During Women and Girls in Sport Week, Nasreen Choudhry of jogscotland group TaySmilers was on the panel for a fantastic online discussion about the impact and importance of physical activity for women and girls in Scotland. The event, organised by Active Scotland, also included athlete Eilidh Doyle among the panellists. Nasreen, who first discovered jogging through our Community Strides group at Dundee International Women’s Centre, talked passionately about how discovering jogging had changed her life for the better.

Having started our online coffee mornings during lockdown, we decided to continue them into the summer, to give people a chance to connect with the jogscotland community as restrictions continued. Sessions included a Q&A with Olympic marathon runner and coach Derek Hawkins (pictured) , a general jogscotland blether, and a dedicated session for Jog Leaders held in partnership with SAMH, on supporting joggers through some of the mental health barriers to a return to running after lockdown. Thanks to everyone who joined us – it was great to chat!

jogscotland and scottishathletics have committed to working in partnership on Scotland’s new Daily Mile Nation Strategy. Established in Scotland in 2012 as a school-based programme, The Daily Mile sees children jog, run, walk or wheel at their own pace for 15 minutes. The activities take place a minimum of three times a week with the aim of improving health and wellbeing. Now the Daily Mile Foundation has developed a strategy to ensure it can be made accessible across Scotland, regardless of ability, age or personal circumstance. Our chief executive, Mark Munro said: “We’re really pleased to be supporting this project and to work in partnership with the Daily Mile Foundation. The vision is to increase opportunities across Scotland to participate and I see that developing into links between Daily Mile organisations, and local clubs and running groups.”

We had groups and clubs all over Scotland taking part in this year’s Active Girls Day, with virtual events taking place for many. We promoted a selection of challenges, aiming to be inclusive of all abilities, and all levels of covid restriction. The challenges could be done on your own, as a family/ household bubble or as part of your school/ group/ club. Organiser Andrea Gavin said: “This year Active Girls Day went virtual, we had groups and clubs across the jogscotland and scottishathletics networks taking part and it was great to know that we had so many folk willing to get active and show support for our active girls.”