Does fish really make kids brainier? And if it does, will kids swallow it? With nutrition and school performance back on the agenda, we went to investigate.

The Government-funded Dyscovery research centre reckons that modern children should be fed post-war-style school rations of cod-liver oil and orange juice to improve their diet and brain power.

But down at York's Scarcroft Primary School in York, opinion is less clear-cut.

"Yuck!" said ten-year-old Tom Britton on downing half a tablespoon of the stuff that probably dogged his grandparents' young lives. "You can't describe how awful it is.

"It probably tastes of cod that's been a million years out of date."

Classmate Connor Sanderson, 10, said: "It doesn't taste of anything much, but when it goes down in to your throat you taste it and it's all greasy. I felt a bit sick after having it."

Tom and Connor were two of four 'willing' volunteers from the school who agreed to taste the fish oil in light of a survey by the Dyscovery Centre, which claimed 86 per cent of primary schoolchildren had not eaten fish in the previous 24 hours.

Tom, Connor and fellow year six pupils Ehlana Goldthorpe, 11, and Joe Towse, 10, all said they eat fish regularly and, what's more, they liked it, but none of them wanted a dose of fish oil on a regular basis.

Ehlana, who was the only one of the four to have had cod liver oil before, said: "My Mum watched You Are What You Eat on TV and bought their book and we now eat brown bread and goat's milk at home - it's not that bad and I don't really mind it."

After the Second World War, British children and pregnant women were given free cod-liver oil and orange juice to increase their uptake of vitamin A and D.

With TV chefs like Jamie Oliver throwing their weight behind campaigns to make school meals more healthy, head teacher Anna Cornhill said the pressure is on to feed youngsters well.

Mrs Cornhill said the school had its own Jamie figure in its Italian cook, Carmella Carvaglia, who made a conscious effort to get the kids off fried food and to introduce more healthy greens.

Tom said: "I like her because she takes care of us and she makes us really good food - her pasta is fantastic."

"The kids think she's great," said Mrs Cornhill. "She doesn't skimp or cut corners and makes sure the children get a proper meal.

"A lot of my parent governors had said that they are working parents and if they were paying for the school meals they wanted to be assured their children were getting a proper meal at lunchtime, giving them the flexibility to give them a snack later in the day."

Parents whose children have school dinners at the school pay £1.52 per meal per day.

Updated: 09:19 Wednesday, March 09, 2005