Cooking bus bakes up a lesson

The arrival this week is part of the school's involvement in the Food for Life Partnership, which teaches the school community about developing cooking skills and healthy eating, following nationwide concern about childhood obesity.
The youngsters watched demonstrations while being quizzed on the nutritional value of certain foods before taking to the kitchen to recreate what they had been shown.
One of the pupils who baked apple and apricot filo pastry parcels yesterday, was Katie Oliver, 10. She said: "I'm really enjoying myself and I love cooking because I always cook at home with my dad. Here someone shows you what to do at the start and then you can go and do it yourself."
Her classmate Tom Wye, 11, added: "I like it because they give you a chance. The way you get to make things yourself and don't have an adult hanging around is really good."
And the youngsters were not the only ones set to learn from the experience. Teaching assistants and staff were also given sessions about how to teach cooking safely.
Caroline Chambers, south east area representative for Food for Life, said: "The whole purpose of the cooking bus is to bring the community together to cook and learn about food preparation. The young people cook organic local food and learn why it is important and learning to grow their own food."
Claire Addis, deputy headteacher, said: "The children have been very excited about the arrival of the bus this week. It is part of our food week in school and everybody will aim to cook something at school, whether on the bus or in the school kitchen or in classrooms to develop their cooking and teach them skills such as to chop and peel."
The school now plans to try to develop a community allotment on site to further the pupils' knowledge about where their food comes from, she added.