The majority of kids get so much out of it. A fair few tell me they weren’t feeling great but had to come to school because today was Cegin y Bobl day.

As these classes progress I’ve realised it isn’t just about the food, and what we are cooking and tasting. It’s also about the way we run these sessions.

We give the kids freedom in the kitchen, with appropriate boundaries and safety rules, to use sharp knives and hot pans. A sense of empowerment that for some kids seems to make a huge difference to their school day.

Some kids come with behavioural issues, and it seems they just cannot do the rigid classroom learning.

In our sessions they have the freedom to express themselves in a different way, with new faces in the room.

I can think of one boy in particular. The staff told me the week after the first session he was like a different boy. He thrived. He didn’t want to risk missing the following session as a punishment so he tried really hard to behave well.

The week we made curry he asked if he could have an extra take away box, without the food in it, so he could keep it to remember. I might have had a little cry about that.

Another girl barely came to school and if she did she wouldn’t go to class. She wasn’t hugely engaged in the food. She liked the doing but not the tasting. Her policy: chicken nuggets only. I asked the teacher if there was perhaps a way I could engage her a little more with food. The teacher said, you are already winning, she is coming to your class every week. This was a revelation to me.

The picture became bigger.

The school system is a struggle for her but coming into the sessions, no sitting down, working as a team, no rigidity, just all going with the flow: but getting the job done. There is room for individuality and choice. This works for kids like her. She is a bright spark who just finds school tricky.

I met her mum and grandma at our end of course showcase. She was really proud of what she had done. It turns out her grandma makes delicious, home made chicken nuggets and she promised me she would learn to make them. If she is going to eat nothing but chicken nuggets… they can at least be of a good quality.

The showcases are brilliant. I chat to parents who rave about how much their kids have started cooking at home.

Quite often we, as the chefs, do not see quite how engaged the kids have been until the showcase. They may be very quiet in the session, but it’s quite the opposite according to their parents – animated and excited about the session when they get home. One boy had recreated our crumbed halloumi, spiced potato wedges and salad meal for his family’s Sunday lunch.

Which brings me back to the food. The drama of chilli taste dares, dipping salad veg into asian style dressings, trying raw, burning garlic, then mellow cooked garlic, begging us to make kale crisps (oh, ok then!).

That’s what this is all about. Exposure to foods. Essential skills, newfound confidence, and the freedom to eat well.