Ready, steady, cook! Children, teachers, parents and friends of South Avenue Infant School took part in the national Let’s Get Cooking BIG Cookathon 2014.

Pupils from all classes rolled up their sleeves to create a delicious pizza, along with more than 100,000 people across the country in home kitchens, and in more than 300 schools.

The annual event, run by the Children’s Food Trust, aims to get as many people as possible cooking a healthy dish together on the same day.

Teacher Sue Steele, who runs the cooking club, said: “We’ve taken part in Cookathon before but we usually send recipes home and the children take a picture of what they cook and bring that to school.

“This time, we decided to do it as a whole school event for the first time, and it’s been brilliant.

“The kids loved the pizzas – they were fun to make, and it was nice to get parents involved. Hopefully, they’ll be more inclined to get the children helping out in the kitchen at home now they’ve seen how well they can cook.”

This year’s recipe was ‘cooked up’ with help of PizzaExpress, which has supported the trust since it launched the initiative in 2013.

Restaurant manager Paul Brown and pizza cook Samuel Cooksley from PizzaExpress in Earl Street, Maidstone, were at the site in South Avenue, Sittingbourne, to give the wannabe chefs a hand.

Mr Brown said: “Events like this are so beneficial and we were really thrilled to be part of the day. It’s shown the kids what they could do when they grow up if they’re interested in cooking. I think it’s really broadened their horizons."