PUPILS and staff at a comprehensive school are getting lessons in safe and healthy cooking as part of a £16.9m Big Lottery Fund supported initiative.

The Food For Life Partnership's Focus on Food "cooking bus', a specially designed articulated lorry is paying a three-day visit to The Hermitage School in Chester-le-Street.

About 180 pupils, drawn from every age group, are learning how to make fresh, healthy food, including Friendship Pizza, Kaleidoscope, Stuffed Nan Bread and Berry Lime Refresher.

Anita Cormac, Director of the Focus on Food Campaign, said:"If we want people to eat well and have more choice in what they eat they have to be taught to cook well first.

"Most young people leave school without basic cooking skills. Their heads are full of health messages, but they have no means of taking real practical control of their food lives."

The school will build on the visit to develop its cooking education and progress towards a Food for Life Partnership Gold Mark.

Deputy headteacher Gill Dobson said: "We could get all 1,000 pupils to the sessions but we have got groups from each year.

"I hope that if they gain a lot more knowledge about the food they are making, the hygiene and the safety, they will carry it through to their families so it has a knock-on effect.

"It should enhance the work they do in school. The school has Healthy School status and the cooks produce fantastic food."