GCSE Food Prep & Nutrition - 2019 spec hard?

Yes, foundation stops at 5, so if she is capable of getting 6, then higher is the better choice generally - it does mean covering quite a lot more work, though, and sometimes the harder levels of maths or science can be off putting enough to a grade 5/6 candidate that they lose confidence or don't get enough practice on the more basic stuff. And in those cases, sometimes foundation is the better choice for a more secure grade 5. (I know more about maths than science though). If there are sets, though, that can help a lot as they can tailor the work to the class and spend more time on fundamental skills and less on the grade 8/9 stuff as needed. And the pupils in those sets don't feel as intimidated by the grade 9 pupils. So then higher might be the right choice. It's not always an easy decision - probably good idea to discuss with the teachers who know her and her abilities. Certainly easier to start with higher and drop down to foundation if needed than the other way around. And the score needed for a 5 on Foundation is much higher than on the Higher paper, so can be less good for pupils who are more likely to make many small errors, for example, even on easy work. However, foundation is definitely right for some pupils, and a grade 5 is fine for many future courses - probably not for some choices at some schools, though, and it might be quite satisfying for her to get a grade 6 if she is capable of it.

I asked my DS today what her say to someone considering Food and nutrition gcse. His reply was if you like biology then the theory will be enjoyable. The practical element is easy if you already have kitchen skills. He said it taught him organisational skills in the kitchen, washing up as he goes along, efficiency etc. As a parent you have to be prepared for the same meal for 5 weekends in a row when they are practising but I have to say when he cleans the kitchen now after cooking it's spotless.

Sounds like Food Tech will be a good choice for her then.
I too was wondering if there was a PE option.. She might have to do a team sport as well, but her dance and gymnastics might serve her well for that and she would enjoy at least one subject.

Is it worth considering Foundation levels for maths and science, if she's only aiming for a 5/6 on a good day? A 5 is quite a respectable mark and she could get that on the foundation level, and then the workload wouldn't be so bad even if the Food Tech was quite intense in terms of work and organisation.

A slightly off topic tip from my Food Tec degree apprenticeship DC who did GCSE but pre 2019 - if you miniaturise your dishes, you get extra marks for scaling the ingredients down, and they don't take as long to cook which reduces the anxiety over the time pressure a little.

Dd did food tech, it's was pretty full on as far as presentation work, portfolio, practicing dishes at home plus supplying ingredients (school did ask families if they could afford it before option was finalised) but not that academic

@ComplexNeeds does the school not offer PE GCSE? She could concentrate on her dance and gymnastics, sounds like she would do really well.

Failing that, here's a positive story for you and your DD. My goddaughter did Food Tech not knowing much about it, but had to choose something for her final GCSE choice… Sh loved it, did it for A level, then degree, then PhD. Now works abroad for an international food agency!

It depends which exam board. My son did AQA Food Prep & Nutrition which was:
50% written exam,
35% food preparation assessment (the practical exam)
15% Food investigation (the wriiten project)

My daughter has been told that even if you mess up final practical you will still get points for showing you have planned it, identified timings etc. so if the cooking does go wrong it's not a disaster for marking.

My DD is sitting gcse this year. Only 10% of final grade is cooking.

It is far more food science / nutrition based and there are quite large numbers in her class that obviously did not understand this and are struggling with the work. There is also quite a large element of coursework through Y11 so they need to be motivated to work on that in good time.

I think triple science is a good idea if not academic, because a, if you fail one you can pass the other two, but also you tend to get taught by Subject specialists.

Food is a good choice if aiming to 4/5/6 (and they are perfectly good grades. The coursework/practical takes the pressure off the final exam.

It’s quite rare to do only 6/7 GCSEs though isn’t it? OPs daughter is middling ability so 9 doesn’t sound too bad. I do think triple science will be a stretch, but if she doesn’t like any of the other options I suppose there’s not much choice.

p.s. Google and YouTube helped. We quickly learnt that some types of fish are much easier to gut than others. I think he used mackerel in the end.

Also regarding the science - if she is doing triple science, and in a class with very able pupils doing that ,will they all be automatically doing the Higher Tier? She might find that particularly difficult if she's only aiming for a 5, say. On the other hand, if it's a school where there is free choice between combined and triple science, where triple is not only done by the most able pupils but those who are interested, and there are different sets where it can be taught at a suitable pace, then it might be a very different story. Schools really vary in how they approach who does triple science and how it's organised. Some schools also timetable maths/science together sort of, and make it very difficult for some doing triple science, for example, to do foundation level maths, as they assume those doing triple science will be doing higher maths.

None of that relates directly to doing food prep GCSE, obviously, but just something to look into to gauge what her workload otherwise might be like and whether it's sensible to do both science and food prep together if they are both going to be quite time consuming or difficult for her with the theory/science elements of it.

It really might be worth looking into whether they insist that she does choose a 9th GCSE after all, or whether she could focus on eight, and choose either triple science OR food, and then have extra support in the remaining time.

My ds wrote and took in a very detailed list of instructions, with all tasks in the order he needed to do them, and timings against them. He used 3 font colours to represent the three dishes, to help him keep track. He also had a similarly coloured list of equipment (school will have equipment, but he had to take in specialist items like the pasta maker and presentation dishes). He was allowed to measure out ingredients in advance, so he took those in labelled tupperware boxes.

You will be able to support your daughter at home with a lot of the practice and preparation, which is good bonding time and helps them with learning organisational skills. It was a very positive experience in our house, despite a few arguments (the first time DS gutted a fish at home, it looked like there had been a massacre in the kitchen and he was almost too traumatised to try again!). 😆

If she is 5/6 on a good day, then she might really want to look again at doing triple science - there is an awful lot of content in that, and it can take up a lot of time, which then might not be easy with a practical subject that is very time consuming as well and that might need a lot of practice time at home to get all the organisational elements worked out.

Is there really nothing else she could take, if she did combined science (still doing some of biology/physics/chemistry, just not as much of each)? Do they offer business or media or drama or anything? What about an extra slot for working on maths, if she really struggles with that - some schools allow students with any sort of learning difference to do one fewer GCSE and have time in a resource centre or similar, not because they're incapable of doing the academic level needed for any specific GCSE, but just because it takes them a lot more time/energy to do the ones that they are doing, get themselves organised, etc., and having both the extra time, and slightly less exams to focus on, can make a huge difference to the ones that they do.

The food course sounds great for future life skills, actually, if it's taught well and not just assumed that the pupils pick up a lot of cooking skills at home. But I can see that it will take a lot of organisation skills, so not ideal to mix it in with a lot of other heavy or difficult courses for her.