To refuse to teach this lesson

If the cooking room space is designed for 16 people max, then contact the fire department about what you're being asked to do. There is probably a 'maximum' room capacity and you may be past it.

Ah I see. I was assuming she had the necessary space since she made the proposal to her HOD.

I agree that makes sense, but our food tech kitchens don't have spaces / desks for written work, if OP has the similar layout she would need another room and a TA/Cover to keep an eye on the other half.

But if half the class did the practical one lesson, and the others did written tasks, then they could swap the following lesson/week.

I'm going to assume timetabling, she has them all in a block?

Yes, we would tend to have something on the lesson plan (if there is one 😉)if there was a specific pupil of concern - each pupil also has a "passport" which confirms they have had training on a particular item.

At year 10 we get a chap to come in, who does our teacher training on machines and do the same course they do with us with the year 10's on the equipment they can use independently - as they will eventually all be doing their own thing for many weeks on end.

Why can't the OP do it in two lessons, like she suggested to the HOD? What reason was given for refusing this?

Actually in science even though we have model risk assessment for equipment use and core practicals. Teachers are still supposed to risk asses each individual practical (I would have thought this would apply to DT as well) as you cannot assess in advance for the different students in each group or possible changes made to a pracitical due to say missing a peace of a equipment of substituting something else in instead.

Teachers are quite bad at doing it but CLEAPSS does say that EVERY individual practical should be risk assessed by the teacher 🙄. A record of this should be made as well, this is in case something goes wrong. It doesn't need to be a big document just a few lines showing you have taken say, John in 10P3 who has a tenancy to not pay attention to instructions into consideration when planning your practical. Or any children with additional needs.

I agree, in this point the OP should do her own, use CLEAPSS as a reference and do a matrix specific to the group and area she is working in.

Submit it with a concern, to the HOD and the H&S officer, then if she is forced to run the lesson and an accident happens their is a clear record of her raising the issue and the concern.

The problem with the food tech kitchen is that, in my mind it carries higher real terms risk than say my DT welding bay, purely because the pupils are so familiar with all the kitchen kit, have likely used knives and boiling pans at home, and fallen into all manner of bad habits and view the items as non hazardous.

ThatCalmHelper · Today 09:04

The risk assessment is probably a generic for the activity, most schools use CLEAPPS risk assessments, so probably of little value, except identifying the most likely point of trouble.

In my industry, for a significant change in operations we'd have a toolbox talk and a new risk assessment, then a request for MOC (management of change). This is all official and must be registered on the HSE database. Apart from a new risk assessment, does any of that apply to you?

I'd speak to the union rep and have them as a witness. Fill in your own risk assessment, including a Risk Matrix, scan it and email it to the appropriate person

If she won't budge take it to your union and HoY/Deputy?

That's not how it works in Science or DT at secondary, we have model risk assessments done for each item of equipment or activity, produced either by CLEAPPS or DATA - we then refer to these as and when needed if a particular process is being used.

We don't risk assess per lesson, but rather per process - they are very detailed, and in DT are gone through with the pupils when they are signed off on using a particular item and posted on a notice board adjacent to that process area.

By year 10/11/12/13, when all pupils will be making something different as their GCSE / A Level project piece activity of each pupil will be entirely different - they will write their own RA as part of their project.

If you feel you do have to do it, and you cannot double
up students, could you adapt the recipe in anyway? What are the 3 pans for? Potatoes, chicken, dish, veg side...could you make the veg side an oven roasted one instead (roasted brocoli). Or new potatoes in the oven (not par-boiled or peeled, just oil).

Think about it as if it were you cooking it at home but half your hob was broken and your saucepan handles had fallen off. What could you shift to the grill/oven.

Would that help?

And like PP....document. put it in an email to your HOD. 100% have evidence...but if you have some solutions (even if not great) you then have something to get it in writing.

"Further to our discussion on Friday, I would still like to express my uncertainty over the safety of the whole of 10AbY completing the chicken roast practical at the same time. Whilst I appreciate the demands of the food room, as mentioned the issues of XYZ are hazards.
Having reviewed the practical I could do 123. This does mitigate "X" hazard. Obviously "Y and "Z" are still concerns. "

This covers you arse on this...which I think will be important...and may prod your HOD into rethinking.

I would update the risk assessment and put it in a email that you are concerned so if anything goes wrong you have some proof of poor leadership

I work with tools in a primary school and that's not how risk assessments should work. They should be detailed and thorough and cover every eventuality.

cooking compares with practicals like brazing - cooking should be a daily activity in most homes with kids well aware and used to the dangers associated with pans of hot water, cookers. This shouldn't be new and novel

It shouldn't but in many cases it is new and novel.

However, even if they are aware of the dangers, it doesn't stop it being dangerous. Boiling water can disfigure and at worst kill someone and the OP can't minimise the risks of this happening if the whole class are doing it

Problem is OP says the room is physically too small and no support.

I understand that cooking is something virtually everyone does in our daily lives, normally safely - brazing, not so much!

However the concern the OP has is a risk based one, whilst a smaller number can do it safely, she is clearly at a point where there are going to be too many pupils in close proximity, using the same equipment, plus she has 4 identified behaviour pupils and SEN in the mix.

Every factor increases the likelihood of an accident, if it were 2 children per 4 burner hob, each with their own side and clear work area its much safer.

And be of no misapprehension, if it all goes tits up and a kid ends up in A&E with burns, suddenly it will magically be all Ops idea and the HOD won't know anything about it!

CLEAPPS have some diagrams of safe working positions in food tech rooms, worth seeing if you can find those OP.

If you are not familiar with CLEAPPS visit the science technician, they tend to use them a lot more than we do in DT and will be able to access your schools member account to access all the info and contacts.

I’m a teacher. I think your HoD is being very remiss here not to listen to your concerns. Even if they feel you are being difficult, they need to hear that you are worried and not force you into a situation that makes you feel unsafe.

In the first instance I would go back to your HoD and together see if you can work out a way to make this lesson work safely. Do they all need to make separate meals or can they work as pairs to produce one meal? If they all need to show the skills, why can’t half do it one lesson and half the other? Can a technician or LSA come in to support you for that lesson to be an extra pair of hands? Allow your HoD the opportunity to work through some potential solutions with you. If after that process you still feel like you’re being put in an unsafe situation, I would escalate to whoever is responsible for H&S in your school and ask for a risk assessment to be carried out.

You may well have to go ahead with the lesson if no one agrees with you that it’s unsafe. But if you have a paper trail, then if something goes wrong, you can evidence that you flagged the issues, tried to mitigate/avoid them, were not supported, and were forced to go ahead against your will. You are probably worrying unnecessarily - I remember similarly chaotic food tech lessons when I was at school, with loads of us using the same cookers - and none of us were ever hurt. But I appreciate as a teacher that some school environments can be more anxiety inducing places to work than others and if you feel something will go wrong then you are right to push this.

Well i wouldn’t do it.i was a teacher but would always stand my ground over anything I felt strongly would affect my pupils. If you belong to a union, ask them for advice.

This is a good shout, they dont each need to individually prepare the meal they can do it as pairs with only one person stood at the cooker at a given time.

It won’t work if they’re all cooking individually, can’t they cook in pairs/threes? With LSA support for those with SEND.

Can you encourage the kids to plan their time at the cooker in pairs to minimise risks eg while one is setting their pan of water to boil at the back of the hob, the other is at a workbench chopping chicken, then they can swap and one be frying while the other chops?

You as the teacher need to right the risk assessment. If this shows it is not safe to carry out the practical in this environment then show it to your HOD and the health and safety officer, if your an academy your school should have one if LA they maybe based in the council. Also ring CLEAPSS, helpline for more support, if you need the schools details for login then contact the science technicians as they will use it all the time . But CLEAPSS cover DT, food tech and art as well so they should be able to support you with this.
Writing the risk assessment first is a good idea though as it shows you've though through all the practical issues and problems with trying to run the practical the way your HOD has requested.

Tbh i dont think cooking compares with practicals like brazing - cooking should be a daily activity in most homes with kids well aware and used to the dangers associated with pans of hot water, cookers. This shouldn't be new and novel to kids its daily life and many secondary kids will go home after school to an empty house and boil the kettle and make hot drinks, some may well cook themselves some pasta.
I appreciate there are dangers involved - can you prepare a risk assessment clearly stating the risks you think are specifically heightened by having 25 kids doing it rather than 16?
When i did food at school the food room had 5 kitchen bays with 4 kids per bay and it honestly never felt dangerous at all.