LEARNING was spiced up in the classroom to give pupils a real flavour of India.

Year Three pupils at Conifers Primary School in Weymouth enjoyed a taste of the Asian country with a curry lunch.

Pupils enjoyed the lunch as part of their programme of learning about India.

Staff from Zafran Indian restaurant in Weymouth offered up the free feast for teachers and pupils.

Shamin Abdul, manager of the Bond Street restaurant, said: “We want to give something back to the community.

“We want to raise awareness about the culture of India and give pupils a chance to try the food. Some of the pupils have never had curry before and they’ve all been really excited.

“This is the first school we’ve visited – we’d like to do more visits to help pupils learn about India.”

After tucking into chicken tikka masala, chicken korma, vegetable bhuna, Bombay potatoes and pilau rice, the youngsters had a go at some Bollywood-style dancing.

Zafran staff member Bishan Mazunder, who is also a professional dancer, passed on some dancing tips to pupils.

Class teacher Julie Burden said the pupils designed and made their own saris so they looked the part.

She said: “They’ve all been getting really into it, even the boys. This is all part of the creative curriculum.

“We’ll be studying India up until Christmas. We’ve been learning about Diwali and the children have made diva lamps.

“They’ve been learning about the Rama and Sita story and after Christmas will be learning about Bollywood.”

Pupils have also been learning the science behind ice-cream making. They enjoyed sampling their homemade ice-cream for dessert after the curry lunch.

Maisie Jarvie, aged seven, said: “I put nuts in my ice-cream because I like nuts.

“We churned the ice-cream up in class and I learned about how to make it. I liked the curry more than the ice-cream. My favourite curry is chicken korma.”