FOOD AND COOKERY
The Food and Cookery curriculum at Cranbury College has been designed to encourage our students to be independent and develop transferable life skills. We aim for all our students to leave us with the ability to cook healthy, nutritious food on a reasonable budget.
Our Cooking curriculum aims to instil a love of cooking with a deep understanding of nutrition, food and food safety. Furthermore, our lessons ensure that all students gain a wider understanding of environmental impacts when making choices surrounding food, and why there should be more encouragement to buy in-season product and reduce waste.
Our curriculum promotes: confidence to cook meals at home; understanding the benefits of learning home cooking; ability to transfer skills learnt to different recipes; the value of passing on information about home cooking and more. We offer all students the chance to experience Cooking, and all students leaving us should complete or work towards an NCFE Technical award in Food and Cookery.
In our teaching, we are consistently and constantly stretching students to challenge themselves and achieve their full potential . At the heart of our curriculum is the aim to instil and encourage a positive and regulated attitude in all our students, and to always encourage self-belief.
CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION
Throughout the students’ course of study with us at Cranbury College, we are committed to ensuring all students develop their independence as an individual whilst also gaining key skills.
To ensure that our curriculum meets the needs of students, we work closely with other subjects across the school to cover the necessary content for our courses. We have developed strong links with Maths (measuring of ingredients) and Personal Development (independence) to best support our learners. We are focusing on developing core skills, including hygiene and safety; dietary analysis; food choice culture and lifestyle; sensory analysis; ingredient selection and more.
We aim for learners to leave Cranbury College with at least one cooking qualification. We have selected the below NCFE course as this is relevant to our setting and focusses on developing the key areas and values that our school promotes.
KEY STAGE 3
In KS3, we focus on building the core skills needed to access the Level One and Two courses in Year 10 & 11. The concepts covered include (but are not limited to):
- Diet (food and drink)
- Consumer awareness
- Food choice
- Food labelling
- Cooking of food - heat transfer
- Preparation and handling skills
- Food Safety
- Links to active lifestyle and physical activity
- Links to food Manufacturing and hospitality and catering
We work on developing independence, and preparing students for their next step, whether this be Home Cooking as a GCSE option, or taking their new skills home and becoming competent in a wide range of nutritional & kitchen skills.
KEY STAGE 4
At KS4, we continue to develop core skills, and now focus on ensuring students can demonstrate these and evidence them consistently at a high standard. This includes (but not limited to:
- Select and prepare ingredients for recipes for a nutritious, two-course meal
- Use cooking skills when following the recipes
- Demonstrate food safety and hygiene throughout the preparation and cooking process
- Apply presentation skills when serving the meal
- Explain ways to economise when cooking at home
- Identify ways information about cooking meals at home from scratch has been passed on to others
The Home Cooking curriculum has been designed to ensure that all students leaving Y11 at Cranbury College with leave with at least one Home Cooking Skills qualification, and of equal importance, the ability to cook nutritious, balanced, and budgeted meals, encouraging independence as well as academic progress.
Students will undertake NCFE Level 1 Award in Food and Cookery (603/7014/2). The units aim to give learners the knowledge, skills and confidence to enjoy cooking meals at home. Learners will gain understanding of how to economise when planning meals to cook at home. The units encourage learners to transfer skills learnt to other recipes, to continue cooking for themselves and their families and to inspire others by passing on their knowledge. Furthermore, learning is based on the proposition that being able to cook is an essential life skill which empowers people to make changes that have benefits for health and well-being. Our curriculum has been specifically designed to support our young people in self-regulating and to always achieve their best potential, whilst developing their skills and independence.