A SCHOOL has gained the seal of approval from a healthy eating expert.

Ridgeway School in Wroughton invited Prue Leith, chairwoman of the School Food Trust, to talk to them about the Government's healthy eating policy.

Ms Leith said: "I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the staff and pupils at the Ridgeway School.

"My visit enabled me to see first hand some of the excellent work they are doing as part of the School Food Trust's Million Meals campaign to educate their pupils on the importance of healthy eating - to help ensure they eat a nutritious lunch every day and to help them fulfil their potential.'' The School Food Trust was set up by the Government following Jamie Oliver's well-publicised campaign to get children eating healthier.

The visit included a talk on healthy eating by Ms Leith to friends and governors and the opportunity for her to meet pupils and staff at the school.

She then sat in on some food technology classes.

Rosemary Cairns, tutor and lead practitioner in food at Ridgeway, who invited Ms Leith, said: "She is very much a hands-on person and was very keen to talk to people in schools about their views. We wanted to make sure that children are having healthy options at school and for life with hands-on skills they can take away - we also want to put an emphasis on local produce."

Ridgeway does not contract out its meals and the lunch ladies were only too keen to chat with Ms Leith.

Ridgeway School's lunch ladies, Wendy Belcher and Lorraine Patterson, said: "We were delighted to meet Prue and have her seal of approval on the food served from our kitchen. We're fully behind the ideas that the school Food Trust are putting forward."