Playschool Nursery, which has sites based in Welwyn Garden City, St Albans, and Harpenden, has been working on being active as part of its staff wellbeing programme.

Over the last three weeks, the nurseries have been recording steps taken on a pedometer, with each staff member taking a turn wearing it.

Staff also wanted to showcase the effect of positive physical and mental wellbeing, as well as introducing a bit of healthy competition between the settings.

The step count was shared each day and it was a closely fought battle with staff taking walks at lunchtimes, walking to and from work, running on the treadmill at the gym and walking their family dogs in the evening.

A spokesperson for the nurseries said: "It was brilliant challenge that involved all staff, whether they could walk a short distance or go for miles.

"Over a million steps had been walked by the end of the challenge, the equivalent of walking from London to Inverness!

"The winning nursery was Welwyn Garden City which received a hamper of goodies and prizes of gym memberships, trampolining, rollerskating and sports massage all kindly donated by local businesses.

"The staff are looking forward to continuing with more being active challenges such as a staff rounders match scheduled for early September."