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A Dagenham school has been shortlisted in a national cookery competition, with a chance to win vital appliances to support its curriculum.

Beam County Primary School is in the running to win £2,000 of cooking appliances through the Belling Cookery Club initiative, which asked pupils to design a healthy meal.

Ten schools have been shortlisted nationwide, with a public vote to determine two winners.

Cooking and nutrition are part of the curriculum across the UK but it’s estimated only 25 per cent of primary schools have a teaching kitchen or facilities, which means many pupils don’t receive practical experience.

Beam County Primary School class teacher Danny Coker said the prize would enable cooking to be incorporated across the curriculum from nursery to year 6.

“Currently any cooking activities are undertaken in our staffroom, which means limited time and space and therefore less opportunity for children to be more independent and fully involved,” Mr Coker said.

“This also limits spaces for parents to join us and if we can also teach the parents, it would enable the learning to be sustained and would widen understanding of the variety of cultural practices, culinary skills and international foods of our local community.

“It is our aim to have children, parents and grandparents learning together and sharing experiences and skills.

“Many children access food banks and this would help us to teach budgeting skills as well as creating inexpensive yet healthy meals.”

To enter the competition, pupils were asked to create a picture or model of a healthy meal and describe why they liked the foods and why those foods were good for them.

Pupils from years 4 and 6 worked on a range of clay sculptures along with a detailed image of the chosen meal, which was a classic British roast dinner.

They also penned a poem to describe their meal.

The public vote is being conducted via the Belling website and closes at midnight on Friday, May 24.

The two winning schools will be announced in June.