EVERY child could be a budding Jamie Oliver by the time they leave school if the Government's latest initiative works out.

In an effort to tackle obesity, compulsory cookery classes are coming in for the country's 11 to 14-year-olds.

About 85 per cent of schools already offer cookery in some form - usually only as an option in the design and technology curriculum.

The latest move means by 2011, all pupils will have to spend an hour a week for at least one term, learning how to make basic dishes.

Some 800 new cookery teachers are being recruited, with teaching assistants being trained to help cover the classes, too.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has even promised to chip in an extra £2.5million a year to subsidise ingredients for poorer pupils.

Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast programme last month, he said the plan was tied in with the Government strategy to take on obesity and generally improve public health.

He added: "I think it is important to act now - maybe we should have acted earlier."

The move has been warmly welcomed by many teachers - including Gillian Sharp, head of food and textiles at Woodlands School, Basildon.

In recent years, Gillian has introduced more cookery at her school, with the extra tuition allowing pupils to acquire lifelong skills and dramatically improve their grades.

Ms Sharp said: "I'm all for the Government initiative.

"I realised about five years ago the way the curriculum had gone meant children had no cooking skills. I've found if children don't have the basic cooking skills they need in lower school, they have nothing to work with when they get older.

"When it comes to good, healthy food, most children and their parents seem to think, Why bother when we can buy it in the supermarket?' but this attitude is having a detrimental effect on health."

Fitzwimarc School, in Rayleigh, also offers comprehensive cooking courses.

At the age of 11, pupils learn about healthy eating and are shown how to use basic kitchen equipment.

They also learn why home-cooked food is often better than shop-bought.

The following year, they cook bread, pasta and foreign dishes, so by the time they reach Year 9, they can decide if they'd like to study the subject to GCSE level. By then, they they will also have also learned how to bake a cake and prepare party food.

Eleanor Dew, deputy head of the school's technology department, said: "We've known the new rules were coming in for a while and I think it's great.

"Unlike many other schools, we've never stopped teaching cookery.

"Our food technology classes cover a whole range of subjects from nutrition to balanced diets and meal planning. We also teach children how to make things such as fruit salads and design their own pizza toppings. We encourage pupils to make their food as healthy as possible, using low-fat options wherever possible.

"We do quite a bit."

She added: "Most parents are very supportive and our kids get brilliant results.

"At the end of the day, we all need to eat and we hope classes give children the tools they need to make vital judgements about food in later life."