A headteacher plans to swap school dinners for pub lunches.

Bridget Goodrich said pupils at North Cerney Primary School in Gloucestershire will now eat meals cooked at a Cotswolds village pub.

Mrs Goodrich said pupils and staff were looking forward to sampling the food cooked at the 17th century Bathurst Arms just 100 yards from the school.

She said: "There had been some dissatisfaction with the quality of the food we were getting for a while and we decided not to renew our contract.

"A combination of staff and parental concerns and the children's refusal to eat certain things meant we were looking at changing it.

"The food was being cooked somewhere else, then being brought to the school.

"We wanted our food to be so good the staff and children would want to eat it."

The school approached James Walker, the pub's landlord, and he agreed to cook the school's meals.

Mrs Goodrich, aged 49, said: "Members of staff and parents had eaten there and been impressed with the food."

The new menu will replace reheated ready meals such as "chicken smilers" with a new menu that includes paella, tomato and basil soup with fresh bread, and roast chicken with mashed potatoes and vegetables.

The school is also starting a gardening club on a patch of the school field to show children how vegetables are grown.

Mrs Goodrich said: "It is a community project - we really want things to work out for the children but also for the whole village."

She said that because the pub was so close to the school, the food would become part of the children's education.

She said: "We only have 38 pupils so we could take them to the kitchen to see how the food is prepared. It also means that if we are doing a project that focuses on a particular part of the world, we can get James and his staff to cook some food from that country."

Parents will pay £1.65 for the meals - the same as they paid for the old service.

Mrs Goodrich said: "The pub food costs £1.50 and we will provide fruit and yoghurt at the school for dessert.

"The old meals cost parents £1.65 but the actual food was only worth 37p a head.

"This will change the whole way we eat - there will be no more slopping food into plastic trays, the school will sit down with plates like a proper family meal."

Mr Walker said: "We are looking forward to starting this project. It is interesting and exciting and we feel it is important for the community.

"We are keen to play a part in helping the children's lives and getting them back to the table to eat a proper meal.

"They shouldn't just treat food as something that comes from a cardboard box - we want to make meal times the centre of the day."