Budding farmers celebrated the fruits of their green-fingered labour during a weighing contest at their school.

Teachers and pupils from Dorothy Barley Infant School, Davington Road, Dagenham, proudly displayed the results of the school’s first potato crop last week as part of a new food growing programme.

Until now, the school has not been able to use the school’s vegetable patch for lack of funding. But thanks to the investment from the McCain’s chips food company they finally got the chance to grow potatoes and other vegetables as part of an initiative to educate pupils about the growing process and where food comes from.

Head teacher Shan Evans said: “This is not just a chance for the kids to get their hands dirty, the growing programme is a great way to engage pupils with nature and teach numeracy, history, science and geography in a fun, inspiring way.”

Each of the 15 classes were given their own vegetable patch to take care of, with the class that harvested the most produce, determined by weight, winning a prize.