Giving kids a fighting chance of a great start in life is the ethos at the very heart of Mandeville Primary School. The community school lies in the heart of Hackney, East London, where one in three households and nearly half of children live in poverty.

But inside the school, rated excellent by Ofsted, its staff of dedicated teachers instil in their pupils hope of a better tomorrow.

Central to that is health, both mental and physical, and the firm belief that inquiring young minds need to be properly fed.

Headteacher Marc Thompson, 49, said: “Learning about food and eating together is critically important at our school.

“When people are hungry they don’t perform as well because they are not getting the right kind of nutrition. We have made it our mission that every child, regardless of their background, will have access to good quality fresh food. The old model was to buy in food. Now our chefs take raw ingredients to create a rich and varied menu.

“It’s still a challenge but when a child says, ‘I don’t like it’, we say, ‘Don’t worry, it loves you.’

“Children and teachers eat together. Parents love the fact their children are eating lots of healthy and tasty food.”

Every lunchtime children excitedly gather in the dining hall to feast on home-cooked specials including jerk chicken, rigatoni, roast aubergine, tomato sauce and ricotta salad, Spanish omelette, beef and vegetarian fajitas, Asian slaw, and Mongolian beef. There’s freshly baked bread and the kids are free to make as many visits to a freshly-prepared salad bar as they want. 

Free school meals for every primary school child in London was initially an emergency scheme launched last year to help families with the cost-of-living-crisis. It is now permanent. 

Mandeville recognised the importance much earlier and insisted its pupils would eat delicious and freshly-prepared food, every day and for free, seven years ago.

Mr Thompson said: “Every child here is valued, cared for, and nurtured in an environment that stimulates intellectual curiosity and develops not just academic achievement, but physical development, imagination and creativity, spirituality, personal, social and cultural development.

“We aim to prepare children for their future and for the possibilities of a world that is rapidly changing due to new and exciting technologies. We aim to equip them with the skills they need for their future, and a means by which they can continue to be inspired to develop their independence.

“We teach our children to value and look after our planet and to understand the impacts of human behaviours on us all - we aim to instil responsibility for each other’s well-being.”