LITTLE ones at a Blackwood primary school tucked into their first hot school dinner in 18 months, after the completion of a new extension.

Libanus Primary School has been without a school kitchen since July 2008, while builders worked to create four new purpose-built classrooms, more toilets, a kitchen and hall.

The new kitchen opened its doors on Monday to the delight of both pupils and staff, who have had to bring sandwiches to school, while the building work was underway.

The school ran a competition for pupils to be the first child in the queue for dinner, which was won by seven-year-old Katie Abraham.

The year-three pupil made a dinner out of play food, complete with kitchen towel mashed potato and also wrote a poem about how much she was looking forward to a hot school dinner.

Headteacher Michelle Oddy said: “It was lovely. There was fish fillets or corned beef and a selection of vegetables and lemon sponge and custard for pudding. Lots of the teachers had a school dinner as well. It was definitely worth waiting for.”