EAT your greens... and your blues, yellows and reds too – that was the message of the week for students at a Hampshire school.

The Arnewood School, New Milton, has just held a Healthy Eating Week, in which all of its 1,150 students were introduced to a wide variety of nutritional foods.

With a sponsorship deal from Tesco, there was free fruit for all.

Throughout the week everyone participated in healthy eating activities and tasting experiences.

From creating an “interactive eat well plate” to food tasting, the week was designed to whet the appetite for a healthier lifestyle.

Executive headteacher Chris Hummerstone was full of praise for the benefits given to students.

He said: “Dedicating a whole week to healthy eating in this fun and interactive way has really helped to enrich our students’ views on food and lifestyle.

“As a school we recognise, and embrace, our role in helping to educate children on the health benefits of eating well and exercising.

“The week was a great way of introducing students not only to the health benefits of eating well but also the taste benefits too.”

As part of its sponsorship of the week, Tesco brought many different varieties of fruit and vegetables into the school to encourage the students to try something new.

A “test your taste buds” challenge also saw the students try different foods like hummus and guacamole.

They finished the week with a sugar swapping exercise – an interactive exercise in which certain foods and drinks were swapped with how many bags of sugar they contained.

The Healthy Eating Week was held in conjunction with the British Nutrition Foundation, which is encouraging young people to have breakfast every day, have at least five portions of fruit or veg a day, have at least five to six drinks a day, be active for 60 minutes every day and try something new.

More than 7,524 schools have registered to get involved in British Nutrition Foundation’s Healthy Eating Week in 2015.

The organisation is also encouraging workplaces to get involved for next year’s event. Information is available at foodafactoflife.org.uk Healthy Eating Week is developed and run by the British Nutrition Foundation, and is supported by the Agriculture Horticulture Development Board (DairyCo), Danone, the Garfield Weston Foundation, KP Snacks, the National Farmers Union, Seafish, ABF and Capespan.