Cost of food technology cooking ingredients

DC's Yr 7 pizza cost about 3 times the amount I would spend making it at home. Ditto the brownies.

800g of chocolate chips? That's bonkers.

I think that Food techology is improtant but I know that it is not chosen by most children as an option subject. I would like to see this become part of PSHE and a portion of each year is dedicated to cooking. I don't mean useless things like raisin coleslaw but all the basics and I would like to see budgeting as part of the lesson.

OP, hope you have a good outcome with the school because clearly, someone is taking the mick. Those portion sizes are way out of control. Maybe they could partner each child up so no one spends more than a fiver on ingredients. Most people could cobble this amount together once a fortnight.

Ds is in S1 (=Y7) and all we have to do is pay £10 towards the cost of ingredients per session (think they will have 3 sessions of Home Ec this year - it alternates with Technical Drawing). If they need a dish to bake something in or to take home (as opposed to bringing in something themselves; ds remembers to take in a plastic container each week), there's an extra charge of 10p.

Occasionally they are asked to bring in their own ingredients - but only when it is their "selection". For example, yesterday he took in a couple of sheets of lettuce and his cooking buddy took in some rocket and cheese, as that was their choice of "extras" in the burgers that they were making.

I don't know if the cost will go up next year and the year after if he continues, but I doubt it or if it does, it'll only be a small amount more as the school is very conscious that some people don't have much spare cash (and even has an "Achievement Fund" to help ensure that no-one misses out on education or experiences because their family can't afford it).

What do they add to the mix to make pancakes? Some "mixes" say add eggs and milk, which is ridiculous as pancakes are only made with eggs, milk and flour anyway.

Actually thinking about it one of my colleagues uses a batter mix to make pancakes what's that all about?
Not that hard to find a recipe on internet surely.

"To me it fits in science more as it used to be domestic science and pupils should be taught functions of the ingredients, nutritional qualities and also where the food comes from, all of which woud fit in science."

I agree. I did A level home economics and we had to do scientific experiments, learn about the molecular structure of proteins and other complicated stuff.

We do teach nutritional content or should do anyway. Problem is food technology was put as part of design technology where is doesnt seem to fit. Repeated designing and making of the same product, drawing endless pictures of said product. It is boring and unnecessary and thankfully we re moving away from that now.

To me it fits in science more as it used to be domestic science and pupils should be taught functions of the ingredients, nutritional qualities and also where the food comes from, all of which woud fit in science.

mamapants you would be surprised how many pupils have no idea how to make a victoria sponge cake withut resorting to a packet mix full of crap. Lots of parents dont have time to teach their kids how to cook ( or dont know themselves) abasic victoria sponge leads to development of different cakes, basic kitchen skills, decorating techniques, functions of ingredients and adapting the recipe to make to make it healthier

takver thank you! Im on maternity leave so its easy to sound good when i am sat in front of the tv

Point taken but agree it is very sad.
By year 9 when I was in school we were given a brief and allowed to choose the recipe- so a healthy vegetarian meal, a cake, a salad etc. This meant we were looking at nutrition, timing constraints, budget etc and the more adventurous could cook something more demanding. This was quite a good way of doing it.

I am totally in agreement that this is a ridiculous state of affairs. I'm really sympathetic about your having to transport your DC too. Not everyone has the flexibility to be able to do so, work wise.

We were so relieved when DS entered year 10 and didn't have to take part in this waste of money. I wrote quite a long letter about this to the school: about what a bad lesson it is for the pupils to see food being wasted, asking why they couldn't bulk buy things like flour and eggs, which are so difficult to transport, but basically got fobbed off. They don't learn to budget, to substitute alternatives if the ingredient required by the recipe isn't there and so on. Things improved slightly when they allowed him to club together with a friend so that they alternated buying ingredients, but still the wastage remained and the ceremony of taking the carefully transported steaming-food-in-a-plastic-container that was a veritable health hazard and dumping it straight in the rubbish continued throughout the years he took the subject.

I have to say though that we never reached the heights of absurdity of having to bring in cherry syrup. I've been home baking for 30+ years, have a store cupboard full of weird and wonderful ingredients, but never have I even encountered this as an ingredient. As some suggested above, this could be a learning opportunity of how to adapt a recipe: if they have to make black forest gateau, why not get them to buy cheap tinned cherries and boil down their sugar water to make a syrup themselves?

Fuming on your behalf, as you can see!

I agree Takver. When DD was making fairy cakes only her and one of her friends knew what they were doing as DD bakes at home with me and her friend bakes entirely on her own. None of the others knew what they were doing.

I think it is essential that all children should be taught to cook basic and simple nutritional meals from scratch. I realise that time is an issue at school so it has to be something that can be cooked and cleared up afterwards inside an hour.

I learnt how to cook properly at school and at home. It is a shame that so many adults can't cook a basic meal and I'm sure it was because they have never been taught how to.

If Home Economics/Food and Nutrition/Food Technology - call it what you will could be a more academic subject like the old O level was, and if it wasn't regarded as a soft option, perhaps the take up of the subject would be better. We didn't just learn how to cook, we had to learn about the nutritional content of foods as well.

mamapants - I disagree. My feeling is that (assuming the school isn't able to set, which I doubt is likely) yr 7-9 cookery ought to be about getting the children who can't cook at all up to a basic standard.

A bit like school swimming lessons, they're not for the dc who can already swim well, they're about getting everyone to swim enough, IYKWIM.

I know plenty of adults who can't make a victoria sponge (and only realise the need when they want to make a birthday cake for their dc!)

Going slightly against the grain here but I would be a bit disappointed if my child was being taught to make victoria sponge in school. Surely at age 14 that would be pretty boring and not worthy of a lesson. I used to get so bored in cookery class having to make scones and rock cakes.

Also could your child and friends not take the initiative of sharing items such as cherry syrup.

This sounds ridiculous. We are on a budget and if one of the DDs needed cherry syrup it just wouldnt be possible!

When I was in school we made carrot cake, chilli with quorn, and boiled eggs. I am sure we made other things but I cant remember.

Making ridiculous, overcomplicated gateaux is only going to alienate children from cooking.

I don't know how the teacher knows if she brings 500g of mince instead of 800g and I speak as a secondary teacher myself! I'd do a quick squizz round the room to check everyone had roughly the right stuff and let them get on with it - after all, with something like a lasagne it doesn't matter too much if ingredients are 100% to the recipe. It'd take ages to weigh and check everyone's stuff.

Takver- fantastic memories of those too! That's what we should be teaching children - cheaper and more nutritious then horsemeat ready meals

Princesssugar, you sound like a great FT teacher :)

Good luck. I date from the era of cheese and potato pie and rock cakes - cheap, filling and the sort of thing kids are actually likely to make again at home.

Six eggs!! Cherry syrup!!

Maybe the teacher thinks they are some kind of Heston Blumenthal with all these fancy ingredients .

I think paying the school to provide the ingredients seems the best idea - ie 1 teaspoon of cherry syrup needed (cue 30 parents rushing out to local shop who probably only stocks 10 bottles due to low demand anyway!!) but if teacher provided it then only a couple of bottles would be needed reducing overall cost.

Oh let us know what they say.

You'd love our school, basics is all they get. I have some high hope of kids coming to school and telling me they had cooked something for their tea, rather than having kebab meat and chips which seems to be the staple in our school.

I wouldn't know where to find cherry syrup either and we don't eat cream. That cake sounds hugely expensive. Is it Black Forest cherry gateau?

We were expected to provide ingredients for cookery at school though (in the 1970s) I would expect this to be the case as I think it is unrealistic to expect a school to fund food for a family meal - or cake in this case. If they are meant to be teaching baking why can't they just do a Victoria sandwich?

When DD was doing DT the school would provide some of the ingredients (which we had to pay for) and DD had to bring some in, but she made realistic things like bread, shortbread, fairy cakes etc, but she is in year 8. Perhaps they up the ante in year 9.

I would definitely complain to the school, especially as they are being so draconian about the ingredients. Giving detentions out for the wrong ingredients discriminates against families living on a budget and shouldn't be allowed.

I have posted on here before as i am a food teacher but to be honest i would complain about the above. There is nothing that says you have to cook in gigantic portions. When i teach my year 9's to do lasagne we use 50-75g of meat. We also provide all ingredients at a cost of £7.50 per year at key stage 3. This means we can buy in bulk and get it cheaper. I wouldnt use 800g of mince at home i use about 250g.

I think there are 2 issues with ft in school.1) the varous governments have tw*tted about with it for so any years, ( its in the curriculum, its out of the curriculum, we are recruiting teachers, we dont need teachers etc) that alot of school dont have qualifed food teachers. Now it is easy to cook if you know how, it is not easy to teach 30 kids how to do it. This is where you get stupid recipes and inappropriate products. The teacher should know how to reduce the recipe to suit the class.

The other problem is budgets. Food cost have risen massively over the last few years. Our departments budget has gone down. Ft department need funding properly so we can teach the children to cook on a budget and give them skills to help them in the future. This is also usually he reason why there Is not enough fridge space.

Op i would definately ask for an explanation on why they need so many ingredients and why they are not stored correctly

Oh and i have never used cherry syrup through a 4 year degree, 1 year pgce and 6 years of teaching!

Cherry syrup? I bake loads and wouldnt have that in the cupboard!
No, its quite ridiculous and a scandal to waste all that food.
They could easily work in little groups if making moe expensive items with each child just taking a few ingredients surely? Then they could sit down and eat it perhaps.
Recipes sound ridiculous too, if they learnt something like a nice chocolate cake, they could wheel that out at home to make for birthdays etc, no sane person is going to homebake a gateau with 6 eggs and cherry syrup.
Seems pretty souless cooking stuff that you know will be binned, one way to put kids off cooking for life.