Cooking and Nutrition

Intent:

At our school, the teaching of Cooking and Nutrition is an important part of our holistic approach to our children becoming healthy, conscientious and positive individuals, both now and in their future lives.  It is not just restricted to the subject of Design and Technology; links are made to, and enriched by, other key subjects of Science, P.E. and PSHE. Our curriculum offer in this area is designed to promote 3 key themes:

1) Health and Wellbeing: we want our children to be knowledgeable and informed about how their choices can impact on their lives, with key life-skills developed that support balanced habits and lifestyle.

- Our children learn to feed themselves and others well, with health, wellbeing, affordability and safety in mind

- Our children learn to make conscious and informed choices about what they eat and how this influences their daily lifestyles, for their own and others’ physical and mental wellbeing

2) Cultural Awareness: we want our pupils to demonstrate positive attitudes to how, through food, they can contribute to, and reflect, the creativity and cultural diversity of our society

- Our children demonstrate a love of food and enjoyment of cooking

- Our children express themselves creatively and culturally through cooking and their food choices

-  Our children understand and respect the economic and social structure of British culture, both historically and in modern, 21st century, diverse Britain.

3) STEM: we want to empower our children to be considerate, creative, and innovative problem solvers

- Our children are aware of the impact that nutrition and food can have, both socially and environmentally

- Our children aim to solve real-life problems innovatively through practical nutrition and cooking skill acquisition, reflecting to make improvements where possible.

Implementation:

Our approach to cooking and nutrition meets the requirements of the National Curriculum (Design and Technology) via our teaching of this area through associated strands: cooking skills, healthy eating, food safety and consumer awareness.  Each year group has three planned in opportunities to develop hands-on cooking skills, once per term, through carefully mapped recipes - chosen for the skills that they develop - that ensure a progression of skills and knowledge so that learning across school is sequential, progressive and coherent.  These cooking opportunities also reflect healthy eating messages and dietary knowledge of the Eatwell Guide.  The cooking and nutrition skills we follow ensure the progression of skills and knowledge and take into account the age, development and experience of our children.

Impact: 

We are excited to be beginning this re-invigorated journey in the new academic year, 2023-24.  The impact we want to have is for our children to be excited by food, to understand the different nutritional values that can be obtained from it, and therefore understand the different needs of moderation and abundance, and finally to understand how food and cooking contribute to our place in our communities and the wider-world.

  • Mr Sam Ostermeyer

    PE, School Sport and Wider Wellbeing Lead