Children have school dinners at pub

Rex Features

A primary school has started taking its pupils to the local pub for lunch.

Sky News reports that the Stoke Bruerne Primary School in Towcester teaches just 39 children and has no canteen of its own.

Teachers have now started walking the children down to the Boat Inn every day. The meals are tested for their nutritional value and the cost is kept within budget.

"The response was good from day one and this is the third year of operation," headmaster Janis Zakis said. "We still get up to half the children coming down for a hot meal."

Meanwhile, landlord Nick Woodward described it as a "good service" for the community.

"Hopefully there's a knock-on effect where if the children enjoy their meals they tell their parents, and the parents may come down as well," he said. "So it can only be a good thing."

Pru Leith, chair of the School Food Trust, also praised the idea.

She said: "I know lots of rural pubs where there just isn't enough trade at lunchtime to keep the pub going, and there's a primary school somewhere in the village which has no facilities to cook, or can't cook, for 50 children.

"I mean, if you've got a tiny school and you're close to a pub, and the pub could do with the business, then why not?"