Staff have been massively impressed with the amazing creations students have been making at home during recent weeks! It has been lovely to see both baking being done and meals being created too! Lockdown has provided an ideal chance for many of us, both students and adults too, to develop our range of culinary skills and repertoire of dishes. Students have used this time really positively and effectively responding enthusiastically to the challenges set, especially the practical ones. Valuable life skills have been gained and employability skills have been practiced. One of our school employability skills is resilience and we have been blown away by the resilience of our students who have adapted to a new way of working and have produced home learning with such creativity. Many students are now regularly cooking meals for their families independently or assisting parents within the family kitchen. They are thinking about reducing food waste, planning meals to use up available ingredients, time management whilst also working hygienically and safely.
A weekly food challenge has been set at the start of each week detailing a themed practical activity. This is in addition to a range of theory and research activities researching chefs, methods of cooking, designing dishes for sports people, finding out about different dietary needs and the functions of ingredients too. There has also been time to watch Food related TV shows and write a review, to gain ideas and inspiration for new recipes to try. It is worth remembering too that by developing practical skills and creating delicious food, students are also incorporating some important skills such as numeracy and literacy into their daily schedule. Reading a set of instructions or a recipe is great literacy too especially as this involves reading for meaning and understanding. Numeracy is developed through weighing out ingredients and measuring liquids, and demonstrating accuracy to ensure consistency within recipes. This time has also allowed staff to (distantly) co-plan lots of joint challenges and House competitions, reinforcing cross-curricular links between subjects.
Projects have included the MFL and Food Cultural cuisine House competition which saw students create a range of dishes from different countries. This is a venture that we plan to continue when we are back in school. In Food we also worked together with Humanities when we celebrated VE Day, where students were invited to research and experiment with wartime recipes, which saw some fantastic results! Great examples of how teamwork and collaboration is happening across the school too!
To catch up with what is going on in Food, and to celebrate student success, check out Food on Twitter at Food@Etone.
