To insist on sending gluten free flour for DS's food tech lesson

It's standard practice to wash out the gluten experimentally and bake comparative experiments. Then you'll see the effect.

Too many Food teachers now have not been specifically trained to teach the subject.

@Lifeinlists surely if standard practice is as you say, then there is no need for gluten free flour to be brought in and the teacher is correct?

Sounds reasonable to me that making a non gluten version would be a great comparison. I would ask.

It seems daft to make something he can't eat and he can just pair up with someone and they can compare. They will learn more that way anyway. I can't see how it's not win-win, but then some teachers aren't very flexible (or don't have the time/ resources to be!)

Agree with your second point, especially if he used an identical recipe.

I'm less in agreement with your first. The purpose of the lesson is not so that he can eat it. He's there to learn something, or a few somethings.

The OP's post doesn't give enough context though. They won't be able to 'see the effect of gluten' by all making bread unless they've first seen how not having gluten present affects the outcome. It's standard practice to wash out the gluten experimentally and bake comparative experiments. Then you'll see the effect.

Too many Food teachers now have not been specifically trained to teach the subject. Another fail on the part of our great leaders.

Not unreasonable at all op. I know someone that is not coeliac and doesn't touch it ever

I think you’ve missed the point, why does is it useless for him to understand the effect of gluten, the point of the lesson is not so he has something to eat, it’s to understand gluten.

I'm gluten intolerant not celiac and I wouldn't be able to participate in that lesson.
My eyes and lips would swell just from the flour particles in the air.
Hopefully your son can join in if it's not going to be digested

What is the point of OP's DS cooking something he can't eat?

He can see the impact of gluten in someone else's dough - in fact, his dough would be a great comparator for the class to look at.

I’ve got coeliac disease and I would never bake with gluten, too dangerous.

I never ate any of the food I made in food tech lessons, don't think my parents ate it either when I brought it home 😄

I think the teachers being a bit pants by not allowing your son to use gf flour. Your son could go and look at other classmates bakes to see the effects of gluten.

And, like you've said the other kids in the class can see what happens when you don't use gluten 🤷‍♀️

I'd just stick some gf flour in a sandwich bag with whatever else you need to add to it to make it rise properly lol

Enhance the lesson? That's the qualified teacher's call.

The objective is something specific that is learned and practised within food technology. The goal isn't actually for the kids to have a snack.

Just want to point out that you can't substitute wheat flour with gluten free flour for a standard bread recipe. The method and ingredients are quite different.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons they said no.

I think it’s inflexible of the teacher - a batch made with gf flour being shown when talking about what gluten does in reference to the batch with wheat flour is perfect - it’s a better lesson IMO

But if this were the case OP would not have said “I’ll send him in with gluten free flour” she’d have said he needed to be excused from that lesson. And, indeed, would probably have told the school straight after diagnosis that he could never be in lessons involving gluten.

Assuming they are going to eat the baked products, of course he should be allowed to take GF equivalents - especially as you are offering to provide them.

If the child is Coeliac then no YANBU. Many coeliacs can't even have ANY contact with gluten. They wouldn't for example, expect a child with a nut allergy to be in a classroom where they were experimenting the effects of cooking with peanut butter.

I would have just said I can’t send stuff in because we only buy gf flour so that is all we can send , I can’t imagine they expect a whole bag of flour per child .

OP said gluten intolerance. That’s not the same as coeliac.

YANBU. He can’t eat what he has made, and therefore it’s wasted ingredients.

I would go back and say that you can’t afford to send him with something, ie normal flour, to make something he simply can’t each. That you only use gluten free at home because of his intolerance so if necessary the school will need to provide the ingredients

i dont see why he can’t use GF and uses someone’s else’s as the example to what happens with gluten

What year is he in OP? I’m a food teacher and whilst students need to have an understanding of ingredients at ks3 the curriculum doesn’t specify specific things such as gluten. I wouldn’t expect a parent to pay for ingredients their child couldn’t eat because it is a waste, in this situation I would either provide ingredients and not let your child eat it at the end or suggest a suitable alternative.

If it is ks4 and they are doing experiments for the food science section I would query why you are providing ingredients, I’m pretty sure science don’t request parents send in chemicals for experiments there so why is this different.

Yanbu. I'm intolerant too and I don't touch gluten!

If the child has Coeliac Disease he shouldn't be in the lesson full stop, never mind handling flour.

It’s a cooking lesson not an eating lesson. If it’s something that can be eaten, others can eat it. But your DS will get the learning from the lesson regardless of whether he can eat it.

This.

any scientist knows you need a control to act as comparison.

so how do you know what you are observing is due to the gluten, if you don’t do a control experiment where everything else is the same but omitting the gluten?

your dc should write up his report saying it’s impossible to define whether the qualities are due to gluten or the yeast, or temperature of the water, or some other variable.

I'd say "that's fine, you provide the ingredients then".

I find it kind of odd that pre school and nursery settings are so hot on not wasting food and won't allow in date food to be used in things like messy play etc. But secondary schools are still making kids bring in ingredients they won't or can't eat to make food that no one will want. Food tech teaches kids very little anyway. I don't know anyone who actually learnt anything particularly useful in it. I for certain didn't.

I wouldn’t have eaten anything that came out of the home economics department at my school. It was minging so this wouldn’t be an issue. They gave us cold water and watered down washing up liquid for dishes. The soap was so watered down it was just water with a few bubbles. The dishes were always slightly greasy and the place to store the chopping board was down by pupils feet! All those saying ‘ what a shame he can’t eat it!’ I’d have been happy not to.