BUSY teachers at a Blackburn school are to be given takeaways at home-time to ease their workload.

The scheme was revealed as Blakewater College in Shadsworth Road became the first school in the borough to employ its very own gourmet chef.

Rob Alcock has taken over at the helm of the school's purpose-built restaurant to bolster its efforts to provide the best healthy and nutritious meals for the 600 pupils on roll.

But the school also hopes the arrival of Rob, whose impressive CV includes spells working with award-winning chef Paul Heathcote and a decade as executive chef serving the Lord Mayor and other dignitaries at Manchester Town Hall, will benefit adults as well.

For the new recruit will rustle up tea-time treats like coq-au-vin so teaching staff can focus on their paperwork and not cooking when they get home.

Phil Deakin, the school's development manager said: "His arrival will build on the good work our catering staff have done already.

"From the start we have focused on providing food that is good enough for you or I to eat, set in a genuine restaurant."

Confirming the take-home plan he added: "In the future we will be asking Rob to offer a takeaway service.

"This will that teachers can pay for a meal and take it home with them in the evenings.

"It will bring more money into our school budget and complement the government's work-life balance agenda."

The school also intends to open up its restaurant some evenings to allow parents to sample its chip-free menu, which includes an array of dishes ranging from Thai chicken to vegetable pancakes.

Rob, who lives in Darwen, said he was looking forward to the challenge.

He added: "I have moved to the school as I think there is such a lot of scope in education.

"I also intend to carry on the push to improve started by high-profile chefs such as Jamie Oliver.

"I hope to really make a mark and push the boundaries to provide some different foods and, like other restaurants, offer a seasonal menu.

"I will also involve the kids and ask them what they want on the menu."

Schools in the borough now manage their own catering budgets after the local authority announced last September that it was not economically viable to continue providing the service.

And Mr Deakin said cutting out the middle man was paying dividends.

"We found under the old scheme that if, for example, you charged £1.50 for a meal, 50p would go to the council, 50p would cover the cost of the meal and there was a 50p profit.

"But we are not interested in making a profit so now the £1.50 will see 75p going on the meal and the remaining 75p going on employing a top chef like Rob."

l The chef's arrival at Blakewater follows a pledge by the Government to make improving the quality of school meals a priority.

The move came after the poor state of school menus were highlighted in national campaign by TV chef Jamie Oliver.