Meeting Diversity dance star Ashley Banjo was one of the highlights for three pupils from St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School in Corsham who cooked their way to victory in a national competition.

Joe Rudland, 11, Lilli Gibbings, 10 and Aisling Massaccesi, nine, made their way to London last Tuesday to compete in the final against two other primary schools, in a live cook-off of Sainsbury’s Active Kids Superstar Cooks.

Armed with aprons, hats and using professional chef equipment, the youngsters had to make their recipe of Bonfire Night Bangers ‘n’ Beans from scratch without any help, but remained calm and confident through-out.

Once all the schools had created their dishes they were then tasted by Mr Banjo, nutritionist Emma Schneider and Tara Hewitt, Sainsbury’s Active Kids Campaign Manager.

It was the Corsham’s schools’ delicious meal that was judged the best and has not only won them £10,000 worth of kitchen equipment for the school but also a dance class with Mr Banjo.

Year six pupil Joe said meeting him was exciting: “It was really cool because he’s the first person I’ve met who’s famous. It was a relief we had won, it was even better than going to the finals.”

Aisling added: “I really loved it. I was really nervous cooking the sausages and kept turning them so they didn’t burn.”

The pupils also kept the school waiting in suspense before sharing the good news: Lilli said: “We didn’t tell anyone we had won at first, we were acting like we hadn’t, then we had an assembly and told everyone and they started clapping and cheering,” she added: “It was just amazing. We worked so hard.”

Head teacher Rita McLoughlin said the pupils could not have won without the help of teaching assistant Teresa Lynch and her passion for cooking, she added: “I am exceptionally proud.”