GETTING children to try foods which are good for them has been the bane of parents' lives since time immemorial, and with horror tales of escalating levels of childhood obesity never far from the headlines, the issue would seem more pressing than ever.

Education reporter HAYDN LEWIS visited Yearsley Grove Primary School in York, where the youngsters have been sampling a new way to learn that greens are good.

ASK children what their favourite food is and invariably the answer will come back chocolate, cake or ice-cream - and peas, carrots and spinach don't even get a look in.

But at one York primary school, they are aiming to change all that and teach the children that, in the words of five-year-old pupil Hannah Field, "everything is good in moderation."

Yearsley Grove School has solved the problem of trying to find something constructive for the children to do while the Year 1 and 2 teachers carry out their lesson planning.

Two classroom assistants Sandy Watson and Janet Barker have been trained up in the Phunky Foods programme and split the 100 children into four groups for half an hour a week, teaching them about healthy eating and exercise.

Phunky Foods is a team of dedicated nutrition consultants, dieticians, teachers and chefs based in Harrogate specialising in training techniques for the incorporation of healthy eating and physical activity into children's daily lives.

The Phunky Foods programme has been developed specifically for young children.

Ella Jackson, seven, likes tuna, but doesn't like tomatoes. She said: "We have been learning that exercise is good for you and we have been doing lots of work about what's good to eat."

For Steven Mulligan, also seven, shepherd's pie tops his list of favourites with cabbage being his unmentionable food. He said: "We had to jog on the spot for about one minute and feel our pulse to see if it was going faster and it was."

Jack Titley, seven, who hates mushrooms and loves cheese, said: "I didn't used to like oranges until I tried them at school and now I have got used to them. I like cheese, but only have cheese sandwiches on weekends as a treat."

Chloe Walker, six, said: "We have been learning about healthy eating, but I don't like raw carrots."

The Phunky Foods programme resource box and website has materials from the British Nutrition Society, the Food and Drink Federation, the British Heart Foundation and Soil Association to name but a few.

They have been rolling out a pilot scheme to 50 primary schools throughout Yorkshire from September last year.

Janet McKay, Yearsley Grove teacher and healthy foods co-ordinator, said: "I think sometimes parents don't have the right information and for example send youngsters in with a cereal bar not realising it has a lot of sugar in it. With the children it's a case of letting them know about a balanced diet so they can make informed decisions in later life."

Janet Barker and Sandy Watson said so far the programme had been well received.

Mrs Barker said: "When we started out, I brought in some vegetables from home and it was amazing to see which ones the children couldn't recognise. Some couldn't name an onion, and part of that is because if they don't see the food being prepared from scratch at home, they wouldn't necessarily know."

Mrs Watson said: "My son came to school here and there was nothing like this then. He's 16 and I've taken the ideas from this home and he's started making smoothies."

Updated: 10:10 Wednesday, April 26, 2006