AS a cook at St Peter's RC Primary School, I wanted to respond to the article on school meals.

St Peter's opted out of council control school meals in April this year. Since then we have been able to offer a range of school meals, mainly freshly prepared each day.

We are unique in that we send menus to homes in advance, enabling parents to be involved in their child's nutrition.

Unfortunately, we are limited in terms of staffing and do not have enough time to peel and prepare vegetables, so we have to order washed and peeled vegetables.

We have striven to improve the image of school meals and feel that your article undermined this.

Finally, as to the comment that school kitchens have "lost people with skills", I would like Ms Slaughter to check the qualifications which many of us have worked hard to achieve and would have no objections to her studying our menus and suggesting how child friendly meals could be produced, to a better standard within our available budget.

HELEN BRENNAN, St Peter's RC Primary School -- Infant Department.