School swaps menu for pub grub

Eighty-four pupils attend Stoke Row Primary School

A school in Oxfordshire has ditched its former menu and opted for freshly prepared meals from the local pub.

Stoke Row Primary School, near Henley-on-Thames, decided to opt out of the county meals service and now gets food from the Crooked Billet.

The number of pupils who now have their lunch at school has increased from four a day to 72, according to head teacher Steve McTegart.

He said its only costing an extra 23p a meal, but the children love the food.

Mr McTegart told BBC News that the idea had come from the mother of one of the students.

She approached the Crooked Billet pub in Newlands Lane to ask if it was interested in supplying meals for the school.

The pub was delighted to take part and a trial week was held in July.

"The children were very adventurous - sampling everything from polenta to salmon - and they loved it," Mr McTegart said.

The new pub menu, which consists of locally-sourced, organic food, prepared at the pub every weekday morning, was introduced in September.

"We used to pay £1.77 per head, and we now pay £2 for restaurant quality food," Mr McTegart said.