Published: Monday, 2nd February, 2009 11:55am

Something's cooking as school sets up new club

by Judith Green

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BUDDING Jamie Olivers will be learning basic cooking skills as part of a new government funded scheme.

For the past three weeks pupils at St Michael's CofE Primary School in Sandhurst have been taking part in classes as part of the national Let's Get Cooking Scheme.

Liz Penn, chairman of the school parent teacher association, said: "So far it's been really successful. We've had parents come along to the sessions we've had so far and it's been a big hit.

"I've been leading the classes along with a couple of the other teachers and I've really enjoyed it. It's been nice to have families coming together to cook and learn new recipes.

"So far we've baked muffins but we did a twist on them and made parmesan and bacon ones and we've been making different dishes as well. Next week we are going to teach the class how to make a basic ragu sauce.

"It's all about making well balanced meals and encouraging kids to try foods they wouldn't normally eat."

Let's Get Cooking is a national network of cooking clubs in schools for children, families and communities across the country.

In its first five years the scheme used £20m from the Big Lottery Fund to set up a network of 5,000 schools.

Mrs Penn added: "When our gardening club is up and running we are also hoping to use our home grown produce, which will encourage kids to eat more vegetables which isn't always easy.

"At the moment the classes are aimed at the older children in the school which links into a national scheme to get more year seven kids in secondary schools learning the basics of cooking."

Let's Get Cooking aims to get 70% of the children taking part in cooking classes to take the basic skills they learn home with them.