Cheney School in Oxford is set to become the latest county secondary to take over its own school meal provision from contract caterers as part of £100,000 revamp of its ageing catering facilities.

Community catering manager Sue Gonzalez The school has decided not to renew its contract with catering firm Scolarest and will be running its own kitchens from September, offering healthier food prepared from locally-sourced produce.

The new menu will include a pasta bar, a vegetarian option, hot meals and salads and jacket potatoes.

Work will begin at the school in Headington at the end of the month to renovate the rundown kitchens, replace old cooking equipment and extend the servery.

Oxford Community School's catering manager Sue Gonzalez will retrain Cheney staff over the summer and will be running both school kitchens.

Scolarest's fizzy drinks and confectionery vending machines will be removed and the extra space used to double the length of the servery.

A set-price meal ticket system will be introduced to speed up service and reduce the stigma for pupils on free school meals.

The Headington school, which is paying for the renovations out of its own budget, will only be serving sandwiches to students during the building work.

Headteacher Alan Lane said: "The equipment was outdated and didn't meet the modern environmental health standards. The older parts of the kitchen are more than 50 years old and we have a relatively small amount of dining space.

"The Scolarest service has been okay and very similar to most other schools across the country. Governors became interested in the subject of healthy eating and local produce about a year ago. We should now be able to provide healthier meals for a larger number of students."

Under the contract caterers, the school was making an £11,000 profit from the children entitled to school meals who were not taking them.

Parent governor Martin Stott, of Divinity Road, Oxford, who has two daughters at the school, established the nutrition working group which proposed the school take over its own catering.

He said: "The school was actually making a profit from the children entitled to free school meals who were not taking them and we were not at all happy about this. We were finding it difficult to give the food away, never mind sell it. By improving the nutrition, we are hoping to help raise performance, attendance and behaviour as well as reducing litter around the school."

Mrs Gonzalez, who helped transform dinners provision at Oxford Community School in east Oxford, said: "It's an exciting project. I will be spending 50 per cent of my time at each school."

A spokesman for Scolarest, which has contracts with three other Oxfordshire schools, said: "The client has decided not to put the contract up for tender again, and will be taking it in-house."