PUPILS at a Melksham school spent Saturday learning about food hygiene.

Eight students decided to give up a day off to go on the course, run as part of the George Ward School's popular Saturday Academy, and all passed with flying colours.

Year 11 student Raf Whitcher said: "I just want to make sure that I have maximum qualifications when I finish school this year, so that I have more choices about my next move."

Academy organiser Brian Francis was delighted with the results of the food hygiene course, which was the first to be run at the school.

He said: "We offer a really wide variety of activities in order to try to involve as many members of the community as we can.

"The food hygiene course is just another opportunity for students to gain more experiences."

The students had the chance to learn how to correctly prepare and store food in a safe and hygienic way, giving them qualifications that are needed to work in any sort of food preparation environment, including cafs, pubs and restaurants.

Four of the students on the course work as volunteers at the town's youth caf, so the qualifications are especially useful as they cannot prepare food without them.

The caf is open to young people between 12 and 18 from the Melksham area and is staffed by paid youth workers and volunteers.