To refuse to teach this lesson

Sometimes it's helpful to get union advice at an early stage
At this point the OP is wondering if she's within her rights to refuse to teach the lesson. There's a distinction between seeking advice and requesting direct union involvement.

Because that should be a last resort if you have tried to resolve the issue. Not a first resort for every obstacle you face at work.

When a colleague and I were in this position, we just turned Food Tech into virtually a non cook subject until KS4. It was absolutely crackers. Also, I assume that if your class sizes were reduced there'd be a knock on effect somewhere in the timetable? Your HOD needs to let you split the practical up if it's so vital that you do that specific dish!

I agree with you about @ThatCalmHelper but why is it "bleating" to suggest getting some union advice?

FFS. You could point that out without being snarky and turning it into a personal attack.

ThatCalmHelper was (as per her name!) simply trying to suggest that solutions can be found if more information is shared.
But it is easier to simply not offer help or practical ideas and bleat about getting the unions in etc as others have done.
@ThatCalmHelper is the type of person I'd want on my team every day of the week.

Then suggest that the HoD trials it the way they envision and plan from there.

As others have said, it’s your lesson and you have deemed it unsafe. It will be ultimately on you if anything happens, as you have already said. Would it be worth a chat with your union rep about this one for some guidance?

Maybe you should add to your experience by learning how to improve your terminology. Using the description "SEND kids" is not acceptable.

Agreed.

From one experienced teacher to another ( over 30 years here)
if you feel that the risks are too big then you are not being unreasonable to refuse to give this lesson in these circumstances.
HOD , SLT, HT and whoever else can say what they like- but as you've said, at the end of the day if anything at all goes wrong it's YOU in the firing line.

I know it's difficult, been there and bought the t- shirt myself, but I hope you can stand your ground.

YANBU. It does sound like an unsafe situation. Cooking can be a hazardous activity. I think you are correct to refuse. As others have said, make all objections in writing but stand your ground.

If something bad does happen, you will be 100% blamed by leadership. Nobody will care that you were pushed into it by them, they will say: "Well, can't they think by themselves? If your boss tells you to jump from a building would you do it?" And parents of any injured child would definitely direct their ire at you in first instance. So don't let them make you their lighting rod for poor management.

Off topic. I don't mean this in a smart Alec way but correcting people like this is really bad manners.

If you need help with general etiquette on correcting people, the general rule is 'don't'.

Have you put all of this in writing? The key issue is the room is designed for 16 and there is not space.

I would firstly seek advice from the union.

If not in the union, put it all in writing and say you do not feel able to teach the lesson as it is just too dangerous and copy in the person above your HOD?

No, YANBU. I think you should take the action you feel is appropriate and mitigates risks.

The eyebrow-raising point for me is up until now the maximum number doing practicals at one time was 16 but it’s now suddenly 25. What’s driven that change? I hope they’ve got records of why that change has been decided with appropriate revised risk assessments as others have noted.

I know schools can be buggers for pushing the limits when it comes to how they treat staff but I’d love to see how they could get out of a situation where if you were to split the class in 2, as you suggested and for the reasons you have, they gave you a hard time for doing so. A union should be all over a case like that.

Off topic. I don't mean this in a smart Alec way, but it's 'number' of students - not amount of students. 'Students' is a countable noun. Amount is for uncountable nouns-water, cheese, happiness.

Speaking as a DT HOD, who does have Food Tech within my remit, but I let them have autonomy, as I only do pot noodles badly!! I don't think you are being unreasonable at all to raise this and object.

Worse still, you say you have space to split and your HOD won't split the class - I'll stick my neck out and say she is negligent from a H&S standpoint as she is ignoring a solution to an obvious problem just because "se doesn't want to do that".

I've always been a bit of a firebrand so would be saying something like " well you teach the lesson then!!" but appreciate that probably won't go down well!

Direct answer, not unreasonable at all!

Yanbu. I'm not a teacher op but I am a parent of a 13yr old boy and I would be really unhappy with this set-up. Knowing an experienced class teacher had flagged safety concerns and being told to forge ahead anyway with no mitigations, is shocking.

I'd much rather you split the lesson and do half and half and it took longer than put kids at risk of injury. It's also an incredibly stressful situation for you to be put in even if nothing goes wrong.

I'm in Scotland and it's not allowed here to have more than 20 pupils in a practical lesson. This is clearly set out contractually.

Suggest your HOD teaches it and you swap with his/her class for that lesson.

Ask for the risk assessment update and call your union asap. If you have a health & safety concern REPORT.

Maybe they could work as pairs with double quantity in each pan?

I was at school when the girls did cookery and the boys did woodwork. As it was only half the class there were only 15 cooking in a large room. However, I don’t ever remember a time when I had 3 pans on the go at the same time and really question this. Surely part of the lesson should be about economising on electricity and only having 1 pan of boiling water.