Welcome to Food & Nutrition
The purpose of Food and Nutrition is to give our students an understanding of the role and value of food in our society. Our students gain confidence in their own abilities and experience a range of interesting, contemporary, and creative activities. Practical cookery is compulsory in the National Curriculum for children up to Year 9.
We hope to develop a broad knowledge and understanding of healthy eating patterns and encourage the practical skills needed to prepare and cook delicious and nutritious food from scratch, exposing our students to an exciting range of ingredients and techniques.
Studying Food and Nutrition helps our students to make connections between foods, the nutrients they provide, our health and the impact that food has on our environment. The type of food we eat affects both our physical and psychological well-being. The right foods can boost happiness, increase mental functioning, help maintain an appropriate body weight and can help to prevent specific illnesses as we age. Furnished with this knowledge, students can change and adapt their own diets and dietary habits, both now and in later life, making informed consumer decisions along the way.
Learning how to cook is an undeniably crucial life skill that enables students to feed themselves and others affordably and well. We put a clear emphasis on learning how to shop wisely and follow a set budget.
Teamwork and partnership working are an integral part of our teaching and department ethos. Many activities are based on practical activities and ‘learning through action’ is very popular with our students. Great importance is placed on the development of social skills and good manners, such as following instructions and procedures, turn taking, sharing, active listening, using common sense and acting with initiative.
Food is also a vital factor in the hospitality and catering industry, which is one of the largest industries and biggest employers in the UK. It offers a variety of opportunities both regionally, nationally and internationally.
We encourage our students to work hard to promote a positive and enthusiastic image of food and nutrition, in order to develop a high regard for our valuable subject. We hope to set a clear course for the chefs, dietitians, food technologists, food critics, journalists, developers and restaurant managers of the future!
Subject Aims
- To help individuals recognise that food is a basic requirement of life and should be enjoyed.
- To keep an ‘open mind’ and try unfamiliar foods and recipes as an opportunity for new sensory experiences and personal growth.
- To encourage an awareness of social, economic and cultural aspects of food choice.
- To enable individuals to demonstrate and apply appropriate knowledge of concepts and principles when planning and preparing meals.
- Encourage students to become familiar with the kitchen area.
- To become capable time-managers, focused on the task in hand.
- Develop an understanding of weighing and measuring ingredients and working to both ratios and estimation (where appropriate).
- Encourage students to use tools, equipment and ingredients to the best of their ability, minimising food waste.
- Develop an understanding and application of using the cooker safely (grill, hob and oven) with confident use of heat control.
- Develop an understanding and application of diet and health and the underlying scientific principles upon which current issues in nutrition are based.
- Develop an understanding of how to develop, plan and cook a range of (predominantly savoury) food products.
- Students also develop their decision-making, and organisational skills that are valuable throughout school, employment and everyday life.
- To promote the importance of sustainable and ethical food consumption, so that ‘good food doesn’t have to cost the earth’!
Students will be able to present work in a variety of ways, such as:
- Producing presentations and leaflets as part of group and independent based tasks
- Taking part in class discussions, sharing relevant ideas and opinions on food and nutrition
- Listening to and making notes from guest speaker interviews with representatives of the food industry
- Report writing based on a range of food related topics and current issues
- Selecting and independently testing their own recipes, in addition to the recipes set in class
- Cooking regularly to develop life-skills and a balanced repertoire of popular dishes
- Learn how to write a sequenced ‘dovetailed plan’ of all preparation, cooking and presentation techniques undertaken
- Learn how to present and finish dishes with flair and professionalism
- Research how a healthy diet contributes to a healthy lifestyle across the life-stages (based upon the principles of ‘The Eatwell Guide’).
- Completing sensory testing profiles when trialling new and exciting foods in class
- Responding to videos and film clips showing how hospitality and catering operates in real-life, within existing businesses (hotels, conference venues, theme parks, cafes, B&B’s etc.)
- Produce in-depth and highly detailed written work based upon the principles of human nutrition