Kids cooking at school AARGH!

Titch89

Cooking at my school was awful. We concentrated more on the science side of things (if you can call it that!) than looking at how to make simple food.

I did Food Tech at GCSE. Came out with a D and can't cook a thing.

tiptoes

My DD in yr7 and She started home ec a few weeks ago, her's seems to be a mixuture of cooker lessons and taster sessions but so far it's been all health stuff, soup, scones, smoothies and fruit salad.

yorksbabe

i did cse in home economics and i loved it. my son has just done his gcse in food technology as it is now called. it is ridiculous! he has made the same pizza 6 times! he also cut biscuits in half and examined/analysed them!

SAV3R

My DS is in yr 8, he only does cooking for about 1 term, doing a practical most weeks. He really seem to enjoy it, I agree with a lot of comments about the foods being made but I appreciate they don't have enough time for big and complicated recipes. The practicals do have to be something the kids will like to keep them interested, otherwise long term they wont want to cook at all.

I usually get a weeks notice of what he needs to take, the most he has had to pay was 50p for pastry ingredients (I would have had these in) and my most exp storecupboard item especially bought was peppermint flavouring.

He has made Apple Crumble (with a cereal topping), Fresh fruit salad, mini pizza, cheese and onion tartlets, fuity flapjack, apple fairy cakes, choc chip cookies, everything has been lovely and he has encouraged me to start making pastry again. Think we have been quite lucky really.

Mariel

I did Home Ec at O level and only got a D - despite the fact that I was regularly cooking for the family by that time. I also entered a cake in the school eisteddfod and came 2nd when I was the only entrant. I've always cooked and nobody has ever complained except my oldest daughter who much prefers food-style supermarket products.

iwanttosavemoney2008

Mariel wrote: »

I also entered a cake in the school eisteddfod and came 2nd when I was the only entrant.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

salome

I'm 50, and my school, though rubbish on the accademic status, was excellent in the practical side of lessons, and HE was taken very seriously, as was needlework. Infact, the most feared teachers, other than maths teachers, were the HE ones, and needlework ones.

We had a very rigid cooking routine, which, at the time put me off of cooking, but now, I'm glad to have had those lessons, because I can still remember them (how to make puff, and flaky pastry, though I don't do this now a days) I came more into my own with cooking when I married, and had children, and now, I'm eternally grateful for those lessons.

We would spend a whole term on a certain aspect of ccoking. ie pastry, bread, cake etc. We spent a whole term on menu planning. Every lesson, we started off writing a time plan. ie 9 o clock, take out utensils (lol) I used to find that pathetic, but we were not allowed to start cooking until the plan had been written, and all utensils were on the table infront of us.

In our first cooking year, we had to cook meals for the teachers, and my very first term was spent leaning how to boil, scramble, fry and poach eggs.

When we did pastry, we had to take our crumbed mixture to the teacher to see, before we added the water, and cake mixture had to be checked before put in tins or cases.

Needlework was a horror house as well lol. One teacher I had, would rip your stitches out if they weren't straight, and that included tacking as well.

raf_wife

"my son has just done his gcse in food technology as it is now called. it is ridiculous! he has made the same pizza 6 times!"

my daugther too, although only 4 times, inedible every time, yuk

kunekune

I did cooking for only a year, when I was 13, and don't remember a single thing being edible (it didn't help that I was being bullied, and it was unusual for my wicker basket (1970s) to reach home without having been thrown up and down the train). And yet, I'd been cooking meals for family and relatives for a couple of years by then, including bread, proper custard and cakes. That same year, when I was off school sick, I ate the half of the lemon drizzle cake left over from the day before, so I made another one and took the 'spare' half to a neighbour. The lessons at school just seemed completely irrelevant.

My DD is in year 1 and they do quite a bit of cooking - they've done soup, cake, biscuits, bread, etc. There is a cooker in the classroom and they just use that. It sounds like it will go down hill.

mum2many

My eldest took food for her GCSE and is finding it really easy as it seems to be aimed at those who dont know how to boil water. she has done some nice things though like sweet and sour chicken and a cheesecake. but they have to adapt and improve the recipes so its the same thing every couple of weeks. her teacher has said its a shame as she is teaching to those with low abilities whereas she has been cooking from the age of 3 at home and thanks to granparents who are passing there knowledge on. I think its important that all children can cook without waste and without pre packed when possible. My youngest is a whizz at making scrambled eggs and has been since she was 3 (in the micro)

I'd have a word with the school as they are taking the p*ss charging 80p for 2 eggs and expecting you to buy an icing bag. if the food isnt eaten can you take her out of the class??

em x