There was much excitement and shouting at Falmouth Primary Academy on Friday when pupils took part in two Ready Steady Cook-style challenges.

Chartwells, the company which provides school meals, held two sessions, one in the morning for key stage one pupils and another later in the day |for key stage two children, run as part of its Putting Fun Back Into Food programme. The scheme promotes health, nutrition and well-being among children and aims to encourage youngsters to eat healthily.

Two children from each session had been chosen to represent the red team and another two to battle it out for the green team. With the help of teachers or teaching assistants, and to the cheers of their supporters, the pupils were in a race against time to create a tasty and healthy meal.

During the morning session, the reds (teaching assistant Kandy Riddle with Olivia and Curtis) made garlic and ginger pork balls with stir fry vegetables and noodles while the green team, teacher Toby Nicholas with pupils Felix and Grace, created a rice and pea castle with sweet and sour Quorn and peppers.

The red team won the initial taste test, when teachers were invited up to sample the completed dishes, and then the vote was thrown over to the children of the reception, year one and year two classes, who also backed the red team.