Food Technology: Schools

(asked on 11th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the provision of cooking classes in schools to ensure that all pupils are taught cookery until the end of key stage 3.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 19th March 2020

Cooking and nutrition are compulsory in state-maintained schools for Key Stages 1 to 3, from ages 5 to 14. It is a discrete strand of the design and technology programme of study within the national curriculum, which can be used as an exemplar for free schools and academies.

The programme of study for cooking and nutrition aims to teach children how to cook and apply the principles of healthy eating and good nutrition. It recognises that cooking is an important life skill that will help children to feed themselves and others healthy and affordable food, now and in the future. By the end of Key Stage 3, pupils should be able to cook a repertoire of predominantly savoury dishes and be competent in a range of cooking techniques.

A food preparation and nutrition GCSE is also available for pupils who are interested in continuing to study cookery. It requires pupils to understand and apply the principles of food science, nutrition and healthy eating when preparing and cooking food. This was introduced in 2016, with the first exams in this qualification taken in summer 2018.

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