More than 9,300 youngsters in 32 primary schools across North and South Tyneside began their walking journey to South Africa last week, and some of the early results are in!

Taking an early lead is Sea View Primary School in South Shields. Collectively, the school racked up a startling 2,063kms, meaning they’ve already walked passed London and across France! In fact, by Friday they were crossing the Mediterranean Sea. It’s a pretty impressive figure, but it’s worth bearing in mind that they are a Premier League school – one of the biggest schools taking part.

We want to hear your Walk to the World Cup stories. If any schools out there have been doing something extra special for WttWC, let the team know! We want your photos, videos and stories which you can email to us. And if you’re still to submit data, we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

South Tyneside teams

While Sea View surges ahead, other South Tyneside Teams are making waves too. In the Championship, the middle league, Marsden Primary and St Matthew’s are also well on their way – they’ve tramped about 1,600 kilometres each. That’s way past London, through the Channel Tunnel and Northern France. In fact, they’re approaching the Mediterranean Sea too!

In the Minnows League the competition is warming up nicely too. Among the first results in, Simonside Primary school is walking through the English Channel at the moment and should be hitting French shores sometime very soon – they’ve walked 1,012kms.  Not far behind them though is St James Primary School about 200kms further back. But in this competition, 200kms is not far indeed and they could soon be overtaking their rivals. Remember the Minnows teams are taking ‘Giant Steps’ – because they are schools with small pupil numbers their steps have been doubled.

North Tyneside teams

Meanwhile North of Tyne there is some catching up to do, although there are some pretty good results as well!

The star achiever so far is Star of the Sea Primary School which has walked an impressive 1,680kms; unfortunately their mascot team, Australia, didn’t do so well in their game against Germany in the real World Cup.  Their closest rival at the moment is Greenfields Community Primary School – they’re passed the 1,400km mark, putting them well on their way to the Mediterranean.

But you could throw a blanket over Whitley Lodge, Fordley Community, St Stephen’s, St Bartholomew’s, Stephenson Memorial and Western Community Primary School – they’re solidly plugging away and have completed distances between 680kms and 1,000. We’re expecting some strong competition to develop in their leagues!

We’ll update the leagues as we receive data and run a commentary each Monday.       

Good luck and keep walking!