JAMIE Oliver has done plenty in the last couple of years to raise awareness of healthy eating among schoolchildren - but even before the first episode of Jamie's School Dinners hit our TV screens, another group of professional chefs were already at work trying to improve children's diets.

The Academy of Culinary Arts - whose members include virtually all the country's top chefs, from president Brian Turner and vice president Michel Roux, to Rick Stein, Albert Roux and Heston Blumenthal - has been running its "adopt a school" scheme since 1999.

Under the scheme, academy members give up their time freely to go into schools and teach children about respect for food, as well as nutrition, health, hygiene, and cooking as a life skill.

Since January, the number of chefs joining the Adopt a School Trust has grown from just four to around 40, and in April the academy recruited Bournemouth-based chef Sarah Howard to become a full-time development officer for the scheme in the south west.

Sarah explains: "The academy's members represent the top one per cent of chefs in the country in terms of professional achievements.

"In 1999 some of the chefs got together because they were concerned about what was happening in schools with children not being taught practical food education. They decided to launch the Adopt a School Trust as a charity, relying on members to adopt a local school and visit at least three times a year.

"They teach about the five main senses and look at basic ingredients and how things grow through to preparing food. Very shortly after the programme started, demand from the schools was so huge that the chefs couldn't service the demand, but recently we've been lucky to get more sponsorship and funding - which is how I came to work for the academy - and we've persuaded more chefs to take part."

So Sarah covers the whole of the south west, handling enquiries from schools from Hampshire down to Cornwall, arranging visits by the 12 south-west member chefs - and teaching in schools herself.

Sarah, who previously taught NVQ cookery at Reading College as well as tutoring individuals in their own homes, has become a familiar face at her own local schools, Queen's Park Infant and Queen's Park Junior.

But they're not the only two Bournemouth and Poole schools to have benefited from the programme - others include Malmesbury Park Primary, The Park School, Moordown St John's Primary, Kingsleigh Primary, Winchelsea Special School, Bournemouth Boys School, Muscliff Primary School, Christchurch Infant School and Carter Community College.

"We've been delivering sessions locally for some months now and I find the children are very receptive to learning about food. I will get home sometimes and have 60 emails from children because they love it so much," says Sarah.

"The teachers want you there because they believe children should be learning about food. In fact, the main aim of the scheme is to get the government to put cooked food back into the National Curriculum.

"When I was at school we had to do cookery as a main subject, but in secondary schools today they do food, design and technology where they're taught things like how to design a packet for food and make it look pretty, rather than how to make a white sauce or peel vegetables. You can get a whole class that won't recognise a leek.

"We had a class the other week who didn't know what parsley was - they thought it was broccoli or cabbage."

If a school doesn't have a dedicated classroom for cookery or a large enough kitchen, Sarah takes in a single gas hob which she sets up in an ordinary classroom.

"You'd be amazed what can be done - you don't need a lot of space. Otherwise I do a cold session - if the children are tasting exotic fruits and vegetables, for instance, they're still learning about food."

The Adopt a School Trust doesn't receive any government funding and schools don't have to pay for sessions but are asked for a donation.

All the children who take part are given a hat and apron to keep, and all the ingredients are provided by the chefs from their own businesses.

Among the many high-profile chefs involved in the programme is Michelin-starred John Campbell of The Vineyard at Stockcross, near Newbury in Berkshire.

Sarah explains: "John invited 28 six-year-olds from his local school to the hotel recently and they had a tour, learnt table etiquette, had a fruit and vegetable recognition session, and John cooked a fabulous lunch for them all in the dining room.

"It was as if they all knew this was a real privilege because they behaved so well and had a fantastic time.

"Luke Matthews at the Chewton Glen is also a member of the academy and he's invited us to take a group of children there for afternoon tea."

Bournemouth and Poole College is helping out with the Adopt a School Trust's programme too, with participating schoolchildren invited to visit the college's catering department.

The college is also working with Bournemouth Boys School to provide cookery sessions for older pupils.

Sarah explains: "We're going to run a cookery club after school once a fortnight from September, aimed at teaching them a bit of food hygiene, food handling and knife skills. The boys requested it because they wanted to learn how to cook before going off to university."

She adds: "We were doing this way before Jamie Oliver, but he's coming at it from the point of view of what children are being given to eat in school, while our focus is teaching the children the skills themselves so we don't have another generation growing up who don't have basic cookery skills.

"Jamie Oliver has been doing a good job and it's made the government look at what children are eating in school.

"The Adopt a School Trust programme is an old idea that's really taking a new direction forward now and it's really exciting."

For more information about the Trust call Clemmy Manzo on 020 8673 6300 or Sarah Howard on 07711 340381.