Pupils at Crowlands Primary School, Romford, learn cookery at Pizza Express.

Budding Nigella Lawson’s and Jamie Oliver’s showed that they are one step ahead of the national curriculum last week.

Pupils from Crowlands Primary School, London Road, Romford, visited Pizza Express in The Brewery shopping centre last week to learn about food safety and ingredients.

The Year 5 and 6 students felt right at home in the kitchen as they have been attending a cookery club organised by deputy headteacher Una Connolly.

She said: “The school had a barely used food tech classroom and I know how much children enjoy cooking, so I started the club which has been very popular.

“We started making one dish in an hour and 15 minutes, and now we make two dishes every club – one sweet and one savoury.

“They usually make everything from scratch including the dough, but at Pizza Express it had been made for them.”

She added: “They do the whole thing, from making the dough to washing up – they enjoy that part a bit less.”

Draft government plans mean that cooking in all schools is to be made compulsory from 2014, so the pupils are already building for the future.

Una, who worked in catering before becoming a teacher, said: “I also teach persuasive writing and I thought it would be a good idea to tell Michael Gove all the reasons why food tech should be on the curriculum.”

“We sent them and we’re still awaiting a reply.”

Click on the gallery to the right to see more pictures from the visit to Pizza Express.