Cooking is a great way to combat fussy eating, promote healthy food choices and learn a range of important skills; from reading recipes to weighing ingredients, learning about where food comes from to food hygiene, our school classes and workshops offer a fun and balanced approach to cooking. We use the Eatwell Guide, supported by NHS to learn about a varied diet and where food comes from. But which school programme is for you?
Get Your School Cooking
This programme is a great introduction to food and cooking offering one-off, 60 minute classes to Nursery- Year 6. Children have the opportunity to explore a range of fresh and exciting ingredients, while handling real life cooking tools to create a dish matched to your curriculum theme. Our Teacher Resource Cards cover Progression, Skills and Curriculum Links so you know exactly how our classes compliment your learning in school. Our Get Your School Cooking programme is also great as an end of term treat or to celebrate special occasions in school like Christmas, Easter and Leavers!
Family Cooking Workshops
Our 90 minute Family Cooking Workshops are designed to bring both children and parents together to learn new skills, explore budget-friendly dishes, taste new foods and discover how to make family mealtimes, a healthy, happy affair! Our 4 week programme will see your families cooking, tasting and learning a repertoire of nutritious, family-friendly recipes, which they can create at home again and again.
Eat, Learn, Cook
Based across three, 2 hour classes our in depth Eat, Learn Cook Programme gives children across KS1 and KS2 the opportunity for detailed exploration, creation and evaluation of foods. Learning focuses on Healthy Eating and how we can use both the Eatwell Guide and how we prepare our food to create delicious and nutritious dishes. We look closely at where food comes from focusing on farming in the UK. Using age appropriate recipe cards children make their very own seasonal dish putting into practise the cooking skills we've learned. Evaluation is key where we mark our dishes, improve them and make them again for our grand finale celebration!
After School Clubs
Our after school clubs run flexibly and in line with your term dates offering a 60 minute club focusing on food confidence, independent cooking skills and mastering a variety of healthy meals and snacks. With the support of a partner, children will follow a cooking demonstration and/ or use child-friendly recipe cards to make, create and find their inner chef!
How do we address the curriculum?
EYFS- Physical development
· Moving and handling: children show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.
· Health and self-care: children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.
Design and Technology-Cooking and Nutrition
KS1
As part of their work with food, pupils should be taught how to cook and apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating. Instilling a love of cooking in pupils will also open a door to one of the great expressions of human creativity. Learning how to cook is a crucial life skill that enables pupils to feed themselves and others affordably and well, now and in later life. Pupils should be taught to:-use the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes
-understand where food comes from (all food comes from plants or animals, food has to be farmed, grown elsewhere or caught, explain where in the world different foods originate from) Name and sort food into the five food groups in the Eatwell Guide.
KS2
· understand and apply the principles of a healthy and varied diet
· prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques (including crushing, grating and cutting)
· understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed (start to know when, where and how food is grown, such as herbs, tomatoes and strawberries in the UK, Europe and the wider world)
