Dreadful dinners are a thing of the past in Oxfordshire schools if the healthy meals on offer at two county schools are anything to go by.

Some of the best meals can be found at Larkmead School, in Abingdon, and Hagbourne Primary School, near Didcot. Both school were winners at this year's Best School Dinners competition.

The contest was run by Oxfordshire County Council's School Meals Service in conjunction with the BBC. Thousands of children across the county voted in support of their school meals.

Four finalists were selected -- Hagbourne Primary School and St Ebbes' Primary School, Oxford, in the primary school category and Larkmead School and St Birinus School, Didcot, in the secondary schools section. But Hagbourne and Larkmead won.

The team of judges -- Chris Gray from the Oxford Mail's sister paper the Oxford Times, Carol Stevens from the Public Analyst laboratory, county councillor Christine Witcher and Rob Lawrence and Auriel Byrne from BBC Radio Oxford -- visited each school. They met children and catering staff and sampled the meals.

Mr Gray said: "I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of food I tried. I had a particularly delicious chicken curry with poppadums and wild rice at Larkmead School. It was all a far cry from the skin-topped custard and gristly beef I had at school 40 years ago."

The head of the county council's Trading Standards department, Nigel Strick, said the idea behind the competition was to raise children's awareness of what they eat and the effects their diet can have on their health.

He said: "We wanted to recognise and reward the terrific efforts that some schools are putting into encouraging children to choose the more healthy options."

The school meals were tested for menu choice, presentation, taste, nutritional value. The friendliness and knowledge of the catering staff was also assessed.

Jackie Hayes, who runs the school meals services, said: "A healthy diet can help improve a child's performance at school. It can ensure they have enough energy, help them concentrate and keep them fit and well so they don't miss school through illness."

But Mrs Hayes admitted it could be tough to convince children that eating fruit and vegetables was better than chips.

Old habits die hard with some of the pupils at Larkmead School who said you couldn't beat chips.

However, Claire Drew, 15 from Duke of York Avenue, Milton Heights, said she liked most vegetables.

"Some of the food I eat is healthy but probably not enough," she said.