PUPILS at a Bradford primary school returned to school after their summer break to tuck into an entirely different type of school dinner.

Until this academic year school meals at Allerton Primary School were provided by a council run catering service, and with limited kitchen facilities, many of the meals were merely re-heated at the school.

But now after a process that involved consulting with the children about what they would like to see on their plates, the school has opened its new kitchen - which pupils named “fresh food.”

A new government scheme meant that from earlier this month school children in reception and years one and two were provided with a free hot meal. In previous years only children whose families were on benefits were given free school meals.

The Liberal Democrats proposed the policy as a way of saving families up to £400 a year.

In Bradford district it meant an extra 7,250 meals cooked every day, which meant that many schools had to drastically improve their kitchen facilities to prepare for the extra meals being produced each day.

The city has long been a pioneer for school dinners - Margaret McMillan and local MP Fred Jowett lobbied Parliament to introduce the service in 1907 Allerton Primary School in Garforth Street was one of the schools that needed to update its facilities, and staff decided from the start to let children get on board. And pupils have even got the chance to cook their own food, as this term has also seen the opening of a new “cooking classroom.”

Principal Sharon Lambert said: “As a school we now have an outstanding provision for cooking fresh food, we’ve now got much better facilities. Prior to this term the council managed our catering, but now we’ve taken on that responsibility.

“As part of our development plan we wanted to offer the very best food that we could.

“We had a competition to name the new kitchen and food area and the children decided to call it Fresh Food. We are going to brand everything with that phase now. Before our kitchen was outdated, now we can cook the best fresh meat and veg.

“We also visited other schools to see what their food provision was.”

The children helped pick the staff that would go on to cook their meals, with Mrs Lambert saying: “We asked the applicants to cook for the children, and they tested the food to see what they liked. They also got to ask questions to the prospective candidates.

“The children love their new school meals, and although the younger children get the free meals anyway, there has been a big uptake of older children having school meals too - the numbers have increased considerably.

“We are now going to add more family style seating in the cafeteria, round tables that really support social development.”

With the school technology curriculum now having an increased focus on kitchen skills, Allerton has turned an old classroom into a kitchen the children can learn in. And to further give children a better sense of where their food comes from, they have been growing fruits in their wildlife garden.

Mrs Lambert said: “The children have been picking blueberries that have been growing on the school grounds and making blackberry jam and blackberry pies in the kitchen. It gives children amuch better sense of their environment and what food is available in their area.”