She said the playground would be a symbol of how they celebrate the lives of the victims.

“I think it is really important. For the children, it’s joy, it’s fun, it’s positivity,” she told the BBC. “It’s our forward motion, our next step.”

Though what struck her recently was how the wider community were going to help build this project, rather than being led by an individual or single institution.

“We’re all going to help to build this and when you do something together – that feeling of togetherness, of community – that will bring the positivity that we need.”

She and Sergio are being prepared for their marathon effort by a personal trainer whose daughter walked to school with Alice every day.

Other parents and staff at the school will also be running to raise money, whether it be at the London Marathon or the closer Blackpool festival of running. They are aiming to raise £250,000 for the project.

The flowerbeds near the entrance have been replanted by local volunteers – they contain some of the commemorative flowers and plants left outside the school following Alice’s death.

In the eulogy given at her funeral last August, Alex and Sergio paid tribute to the “wonderful community” who had supported them.

Ms Payne also spoke to the congregation and told them one of the school’s teachers had named her baby in Alice’s memory, a moment that appeared to deeply move her mother.

Asked by the BBC what she thought of when remembering her daughter, Alex said: “Happiness, kindness – everything good.”