Redland Primary School in Chippenham will be able to serve hot meals for the first time in 11 years thanks to a successful bid by Wiltshire Council for Government funding.

Brinkworth Earl Danby’s Church of England Primary and All Cannings Church of England Primary near Devizes also heard last week they will receive funding to improve kitchen facilities.

They are among six schools, out of 160 primary and infant schools in Wiltshire, who are to receive a total of £526,240 to help build new kitchens, create dining space and provide catering equipment.

The schools bid for the funding because they were finding it logistically difficult to serve free meals, which all schools were asked to provide to five to seven-year-olds in a Government drive to aid learning.

Hilary Lambert, headteacher of Redland School in Brook Street, said: “We are one of the lucky ones to get this. We’re getting a kitchen pod. It comes all ready equipped and is going to be craned in at Easter.

“We’re absolutely delighted we’ll have a kitchen on site where we can provide a proper dinner service. We didn’t want to ship in meals – it’s much more nutritious this way.”

Laura Mayes, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “Most schools have been providing hot meals since September 2014 but this funding will mean that all schools in Wiltshire will now be providing hot dinners. I’m very pleased for the schools who will receive additional funding as this will make a real difference to them.

“It’s important we continue to support all our schools as they face the challenges of providing hot meals.”

All Cannings Primary School, which is working with Edwards and Ward caterers, has £14,500 in funding for new appliances to cope with the increased demand.

It acts as a hub and supplies hot meals to two other schools – Chirton Primary and Urchfont Primary – along with the pre-schools at Chirton and All Cannings.

Headteacher Richard Borman said: “We already had a new kitchen but the large increase in numbers meant that we were struggling to cope with up to 170 meals a day over the different sites.

“This money to improve our facilities will be fantastic for the children and will tie in with all the work we have been doing in school about healthy eating.”