Budding young chefs have stepped back into the kitchen classroom - 15 months after flooding devastated the premises.

Students at Richard Rose Central Academy have been left without dedicated rooms for their food technology studies since Storm Desmond wreaked havoc in December 2015.

The school's kitchens were destroyed in the floods which forced the temporary closure of the school, in Victoria Place.

On Friday, the first lessons were taught in the academy's new food technology kitchens - the latest milestone in the ongoing recovery work at the city centre campus.

Technology teacher Caroline Hetherington, who took the first lesson, said: “Food education can make a real difference to the quality of people’s lives.

"It empowers them to make choices and provides them with a greater range of options.

"Learning about food at Central Academy is a practically involving experience.

"Food presents people with everyday decisions to make and problems to solve.

"Students need to develop the knowledge, skills and practical capability to meet needs and requirements through appropriate responses to the challenges which food presents in their lives."

She added: "As such, food has a role to play in linking aspects of education that relate to health, life skills and in preparing young people as citizens."

The brand new specialist Food Technology facilities are specifically designed to meet the requirements of the curriculum.

A spokesman for the school added: "This gives students at Central Academy the opportunity to achieve the best possible results."

The school opened its doors to neighbouring schools and the community last month, to invite people in to see firsthand the work that has been done to bounce back from the floods.