A RAMSBOTTOM primary school has received national recognition for the meals it serves up for its pupils.

Staff from Peel Brow School attended the EDUcatering Excellence Awards in London last week after being shortlisted for the Excellence in School Food Award.

The school was shortlisted after being nominated for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in School Food by Bury North MP James Frith.

At the ceremony at the Royal Garden Hotel, London, last Tuesday, Peel Brow was beaten to the award by Plymouth-based company CATERed.

However, judges praised the school’s entry for contributing ‘in a proactive way to improve school food and ensuring children are eating healthily’.

The entry focused on food miles, looking at ‘Farm to Fork’, following on from efforts to make school meals healthier and teach pupils about the importance of food miles.

Peel Brow headteacher Danny Mellor attended the awards ceremony. Afterwards, he said: “It was really good to see our efforts recognised.

“We have a great chef, Rachel Johnson, who is ably supported by Maureen Oxton and Chloe Johnson.

“We can grow our own vegetables on site which we can then prepare and cook in our school kitchen.

“Mellors Catering, our school meals provider, promotes sustainable healthy eating and work closely alongside school to give the children the best possible options.”

The changes to the school’s meals came about after pupils were invited to assess how healthy they thought the menus were.

After suggesting a number of alternatives, such as changes to the vegetables on offer, discussions were had with the school chef, resulting in new meals and options being made available for all.

The school’s approach has also included developing raised planting beds to grow their own vegetables, which are then harvested, cooked and eaten by staff and pupils.

Parents were invited to sample the new meals, with the school claiming that feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The changes have reportedly proved popular with pupils as well; the number eating school meals has risen since the changes were brought in.

Teachers have also attempted to enhance pupil’s understanding of how food is grown, cultivated, harvested and gets to the table during lessons by incorporating it into work carried out in classes.