FOREIGN Secretary David Miliband is “kind” and a “nice guy” according to children he met today at a Hendon school.

Labour support may be flagging among current voters but Mr Miliband made a positive impression on Parkfield Primary School's future electors.

During a visit to the school in St David's Place, he took part in a question and answer session with year six pupils.

Reporters were not permitted to sit in on the Q and A but teacher Philip Maddock said afterwards that they had asked the Cabinet member what he thinks of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and whether he wanted to be Prime Minister himself.

Mr Maddock said: “Mr Milliband was very complimentary about Gordon Brown and deftly evaded the second question, saying he wanted to focus on his current role.”

The Foreign Secretary has been straying outside his brief in recent weeks with a series of drop-ins and public meetings on subjects not limited to foreign affairs, leading to speculation he is positioning himself for a leadership contest.

Earlier in the day he visited a health centre in Harrow.

But at the school there was a link of sorts to his current job.

Of its 350 children, 98 per cent are from ethnic minorities and 88 per cent do not speak English as a first language.

The children also wanted to know what Mr Miliband thought about the Haiti earthquake, alongside details of his job.

And Mr Miliband was curious about which languages they spoke, where their families were from and what they thought of their teachers.

He said afterwards: “They said that they were proud of their school and that they liked their headteacher.

“I thought that they were children of real confidence.

“This is a school which has a very high turnover and they're doing an outstanding job.”

Earlier Mr Miliband was treated to a tour of the school conducted by the school council and a choir performance.

Ten-year-old twins Aurora and Alexia Barrett showed the Foreign Secretary around the school and also attended the Q and A.

Aurora said: “I think he was a very nice person. He's very keen on his job and I believe he thinks very well of our school, he said he liked the layout.”

Tony Nakuci, also ten, said: I thought he was a pretty nice guy. He was kind and answered the questions in a very nice way.”

Alexis agreed: “He was very clear in his answers, he told us all the stuff we asked.”

Head teacher Robert Cooper was unsure of the reason for the visit but said it had been a real boost to children's self esteem at a school where many came from deprived backgrounds.

“We can cope with that and we can cope with the languages. The bit that's the real challenge is that last term from September to December we had 80 children arrive and 50 children leave,” he said.

“We have wonderful children but we don't do so well in league tables because of this.

“For us this is a really good opportunity to show how good we are when we have difficult circumstances.”