A TORFAEN school has started scheduling a "daily mile" into the school day, with impressive results.

The exercise scheme at Cwmbran's Nant Celyn Primary School, has been proving popular with the pupils, both inside and out of the classroom.

At Cwmbran’s Nant Celyn Primary School, the daily mile has seen schoolchildren and staff walking, running or jogging at least one mile every day.

In conjunction with Dragon Sports and Torfaen Sports Development, the scheme started in September and has so far had a very positive reception.

Claire Sharpe, a teaching assistant at the school said: “The children have said that it’s great fun and at first they were all walking a mile but now they are running and some of them can even run a whole mile now.

She added that both the children and the staff took on the daily mile, which is now on every class timetable, to promote wellbeing and have since found that it also seems to raise the self esteem of those taking part.

The teaching assistant added that children have told her about the fun they are having, and how impressed they are with the difference it has made in their lives.

She said that children told her although they get "hot, sweaty and out of puff", it helps them to stay healthy.

Some children are now even running up to five miles a week.

On another level, the school believes that it is helping their pupils in the classroom, in terms of education attainment.

Bridie Cobley, a sports development officer at Torfaen Sports Development said: “It is around getting active, particularly for younger children. However, from working with Nant Celyn, there is evidence to suggest that the daily mile is having an educational benefit as well as a physical one.

“We’ve tried to run the daily mile across all the schools in Torfaen, but it is fair to say that Nant Celyn are the ones who have really taken it on.”