Food in schools

Cooking provides unique opportunities to consolidate learning from literacy, numeracy and other areas of the curriculum. Food in Schools Primary Training is a free continuing professional development (CPD) scheme, available across England. It trains primary teachers in how to provide practical cookery lessons in school and how to teach supporting information on food and nutrition to their children. It forms part of the national Healthy Schools programme, funded by the DCSF, and is designed to help schools meet two of the criteria for the Healthy Schools standard.The key aims are to:

• increase teachers’ confidence and competence in teaching about food and nutrition
• increase children’ experience of working with food
• increase children’ knowledge of diet, nutrition, healthy eating, food chain principles, food hygiene and safety
• support the Healthy Eating core theme of the Healthy Schools programme
• help raise the standards of achievement in food education
• develop a supportive network between schools concerning food issues.