Our school has been shortlisted in a national cookery prize that could see us win £2,000-worth of cooking appliances. The successful entry was submitted by Theo Hatzixanthis, aged seven from Year 2, and is now up for a public vote to determine the winner.

The Belling Cookery Club competition, which is run by cooker and appliance brand Belling, was looking for pupils to design a picture of their favourite nutritionally balanced meal, as well as a brief description of why they liked it so much and why it was healthy. The aim of the prize is to provide two winning schools with Belling appliances worth £2,000, so they can provide cooking lessons for pupils.

Theo's entry — which can be viewed on here — saw him recommend his favourite dish of spaghetti bolognaise, vegetables, and salad, along with a colourful picture of his ideal plate.

Theo said: "My favourite dinner is spaghetti bolognaise because I like meat. It's really tasty! It is healthy because meat contains protein, to help me grow, pasta contains carbs to give me energy and vegetables contain vitamins and minerals to keep me healthy."

Winning the competition would mean a lot to Linton, as the appliances would make it much easier to offer essential cooking lessons to kids.

Miss Campbell, Design and Technology Lead, said: "Unfortunately, we are a significantly underfunded school and I have had to fight and raise some funds to have a very small kitchen area installed in our servery area. This consists of just a few cupboards and we do not have a proper children's kitchen on the premises at the moment so are just making the best of what we have!

"We really want to purchase a cooker for the children's kitchen area as we are currently unable to do any kind of cooking or baking with the children at all. This is a crucial part of the curriculum and I believe that it is important to teach the children life skills. I also run a Design Technology Club, but we are unable to teach many of the food areas which I would like to include in my sessions without a cooker!"

The Belling Cookery Club winner will be decided by a public vote on the Belling Cookery Club website. Voting will close on Friday 24th May 2019 at midnight and winners will be announced in June 2019.