When you think of school meals beige fried food may spring to mind, but that is not the case at Landscore Primary School in Devon.

"They love the salad bar, they ate kilos of olives last week, they love the wholewheat flour," said head teacher Patrick Seller.

The school adopted a healthy eating regime with help from the charity Chefs in School - making them a step ahead of a government policy due to take effect in 2027 that bans deep fried food.

Amber, 10, is a fan: "This tomato pasta is really good. There's homemade bread as well."

Marissa Buckley, from the charity, said: "Children deserve to eat proper food and they're not - I can't understand why it's not a fundamental part of education."

She believes all children in every school should have access to food cooked from scratch.

To that end, the charity visits schools, trains chefs and leads change programmes in a bid to "improve nutritional standards".

Seller said he first heard about the charity while he was working in London - and jumped on the chance to work with the organisation when it extended its operation to south-west England.

He said the switch had been a hit with the children and "it offers a great opportunity for schools to get rid of some of those unhealthy options that children might gravitate towards".

Student Harry said of his lunch: "This watermelon is really watery and really good, I think it might be my favourite."

Spencer, seven, meanwhile has come to a decision: "The pasta I'm going to give a nine out of 10 because I like the tomato sauce on it and it's very good."

Previously, the Crediton school - like many others in the country - hired an external catering firm.

The charity has helped them recruit a "chef educator" and other staff, while assisting with the launch of a new menu with "fresh, seasonal ingredients" for 96p per day per child.

The school's newly recruited chef Darren Chandler said the switch-up was making a real difference: "We had a couple of kids on Friday who had never had chicken off the bone.

"They're trying different things every day, everything's home cooked and it's local.

"They need to understand where their food comes from, it's really important."

In a move billed by Education Secretary Lucy Powell as "once-in-a-generation", new school food standards will require increased fibre and wholegrains, nutrition rules for breakfast clubs, and a reduction in sweet desserts and cake.

The changes, which the government said would be funded with existing money for schools, are due to come into effect from 2027.

Chefs in Schools said the government's new policy represented an "opportunity to truly transform school food".

It added: "It's time to get the junk out of schools, to properly support chefs and to ensure every child has the delicious, nutritious food they need to thrive."

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