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"I used to have school meals but now I don't because the prices got higher," says five-year-old Jemima, cramming the last bit of KitKat from her packed lunch into her mouth with a happy grin. It's turkey roast or ham and cheese salad wraps on the menu today at St Mary Redcliffe primary in Bristol. Wave after wave of pupils flow into the dining hall between 11.45am and 1pm, either clutching their lunchbags or heading to the servery.

School dinners here have just gone up to £2.25, so it's hardly surprising that some parents look at a bill of almost £50 a month and conclude that they can make a packed lunch for less. Come September, though, if the universal free school meals policy is realised, Jemima's family won't have to pay. But right now, it's hard to see how headteacher Emma Payne is going to turn Nick Clegg's policy - announced at the Liberal Democrat party conference - into a reality.

Headteachers received their first letter on the subject from the education secretary, Michael Gove, and the schools minister, David Laws, last month informing them they are obliged to implement the policy by September. So far, there have been no offers of any help or advice about how to get the job done.

Payne starts to explain the problems she's facing, but has barely described the catchment - "very mixed, lots of cultures, some families in one of the 10% most deprived wards in the UK" - when she suddenly has to leap up: a referral to social services needs her urgent input.

Her deputy, Lucy Swift, takes over and we walk to the dining hall. As in many schools, this is the only inside space for PE, too. It is also used for the breakfast club, assemblies, music and drama productions, and after-school activities.

The school has 426 children. The dining hall isn't big. Fifteen folded dining tables are placed against a wall. It's the middle of assembly: one class isn't here, and even with pupils sitting on the floor the room is nearly full. "It's our only relief space," says Swift. "We had to use it when classrooms flooded over Christmas." Can everyone be seated here for lunch at once? Swift laughs: "Not a hope!"

We poke our heads into the kitchen. A year ago, the contract catering company asked for what was then a facility for keeping pre-cooked dinners warm to be converted so that meals could be cooked on site. It's small: about six metres by four (20ft by 13ft). A chef and two assistants bustle about. Any more people working in here would be a squash.

There's nowhere inside to extend this kitchen. The only option is to knock through the outside wall. We go outside. Half of the small area that could be built on is taken up by a shed. Curious, I open a door, to find lots of catering equipment, cutlery and serving dishes. "We were asked to put it up because there was no room for everything in the kitchen," Swift explains.

Wondering what scale of increase the kitchen would need to deliver the universal free school meals, we ask the office for a snapshot of the numbers. "Today there are 53 children in reception and key stage 1 having a school dinner," says the administration expert. If universal free meals were in operation today, 173 children at this school would be eligible. In TV chef-speak, that's another 120 "plates" to be prepped, cooked and dished up. Extra supervising staff will be needed too. "Little ones will need some of their lunch cutting up."

This school isn't an academy, but those that are had only until 31 January - one week after the Gove letter to headteachers - to apply for the extra funding that was announced to help deliver the policy. Payne says she has had no guidance in how to apply for available money either, and the bursar, Elizabeth Harrex, confirms that there has been no communication from the local authority.

"My immediate thought was, 'well, it's going to be a challenge'," says Payne. "Because ... our kitchen is not big enough and there is no hope of making it bigger. But it's not a bad idea."

"Actually," she says, "my immediate thought was about pupil premium funding." I'm puzzled, so Payne explains. St Mary Redcliffe has 22% of pupils taking free school meals. "That's 124 children whose parents have claimed - though I know another 94 children are entitled." Pupil premium money, so vital to schools like this, is calculated per pupil claiming free school meals. "As yet, I'm unclear about how universal free school meals will impact upon pupil premium funding," she says.

In an ideal world, with all the practical challenges met, does Payne believe that offering free school meals to all children is a good thing? "Yes," she says immediately. "It's a nutritious meal, and it's appropriate portion-sizing for children. It's fresh. And it's produced from scratch on the premises."

We consider her options for delivering the policy. Go back to bringing in meals cooked offsite? "Oh, no, no, no!" she exclaims vehemently. "Food is not at its best when it has travelled and been kept warm. And the dinners are better now [that they're cooked onsite], so why would we want to go backwards?"

Turning a classroom into a new kitchen won't work. There are 15 classrooms and 15 classes, with some children taught in rooms graded as "severely undersized" in the school's last accommodation analysis. Extending lunchtimes looks daunting: Payne shows me the timetable and there are no gaps. "What would be lost would be physical activity," she says. A hot meal over a PE lesson - from a child's point of view it doesn't seem a constructive trade-off.

So, does she have a plan? "No, I don't know what to do," she admits. "There is no simple solution, and complex solutions take time. And," she adds dryly, recalling the urgent support required by one child's family earlier this morning, "we're quite busy at the moment, really."

Suddenly Payne grins. "As yet, I cannot see a solution. But we will find one, because that's what we do."

* Education Guardian will return to St Mary Redcliffe next term