The students, who are all leaving school this summer, have been carrying out some practical cookery to broaden their experiences and prepare them for life after school and when they leave home and have to look after themselves.

Teacher Kerry Rivett said: “Students first competed against members of their tutor base cooking either a main course or pudding and the winner from each tutor base went through to the final round.”

Winner, with her lemon sponge pudding with whipped cream, was Katie Thorpe whilst the other finalists were Iain Heron-Stamp, who cooked a Thai sweet chilli chicken with cinnamon flavoured rice, Sammie Goy who created a chicken tikka massala with rice and Emily Parker who produced spinach and cheese pasties.

Kerry said all the dishes created were ‘excellent and of restaurant standard’.

“We wanted to give them the opportunity for something a bit different and challenging,” she said. “We expected them to produce food of a high standard, but it was much better than we had anticipated.”