Do your kids bring ingredients to school for food tech ?

[Shishasister]

Private Day school announced that due to health and safety pupils supply own ingredients.
Today it was 250g beef mince, can of tomatoes, box of tomatoe paste, 250g milk , 6 sheets of lasagna, 25g butter, 25g flour, 50g of grated cheese, 15ml of oil , and onion, a.carrot and a oven proof dish ..
Oh and pepper and mixed herbs.

Health and safety my arse , a child carrying raw meat and milk in a rucksack is more of a risk. 🤢
Plus I spent an exorbitant amount on last minute purchasing that surely would be more reasonable in bulk. Yes the dish came home but nobody will eat it except maybe the dog.

It might be an allergies thing. I am far happier with my son taking all his own stuff as we can edit the recipes to allow for allergies (and then he gets his own cooking area in their kitchen)

I think the point of having the children bring in the ingredients is to test their ability to read a recipe and measure out the ingredients.

My DCs’ food tech classes weren’t just cooking. They covered food hygiene, nutrition and how to meal plan within a tight budget. They also had a vegetable garden at the school and learned a bit of how to grow your own veg and herbs. I thought it was all useful.

Oh and before you say some parents don't teach their children to cook one of mine took it for gcse and it was even more pointless and expensive than when they had to do it

Anyone who wants to learn how to cook and who doesn't have parents to teach them will be using Google, not using what they learnt in year 7-9 at school

I think it was only pointless because you’d already taught them everything. Imagine having no classes and no parents teaching you.

@AllWeWantToDo I think you should re read @rollonretirementfgs 's posts about the reality of teaching the subject. You seem to have a very narrow and dismissive attitude about a subject which you're obviously fairly ignorant of. This is nothing new to such teachers, sadly.

As has been pointed out, it's far more than learning to cook a few random dishes. I'd be interested to see the results of the google method with 12 year olds for sure.
You'll be pleased to hear (well you may be) that the gcse your children did no longer exists. A new recipe was devised! Going well!!

A subject which Kenneth Baker did his best to destroy when the National Curriculum was created has somehow managed to cling on and reinvent itself, often with very little support because, y'know, money.

If schools were properly funded no child would, or should, be taking ingredients from home for a school subject. That funding would have to include proper ancillary assistance.

One of the first lessons that we used to do was how to wash up by hand.
Some pupils didn't know the separate parts of the oven/grill/hob.

Yes it can be expensive at KS4 but that will be down to what the pupil wants to cook, and parents that don't reign them in.

Yes absolutely this. The kids actually love going to the shops to buy the ingredients too, they have their little list and pop into Tesco on the way to school. A great opportunity for independence. Obviously we still get some who have lovely mums who put everything into little bags for them, and that's fine too. Weighing measuring and selecting ingredients is all part of the learning.
I also think when the children provide their own ingredients it gives them the opportunity, as a pp mentioned, to swap ingredients that they don't like or that they think will enhance the dish. That's real learning.
I think some of you dino's would be surprised at what we teach the kids to cook these days, it's not all scones and bolognaise. I'm a qualified patisserie chef that then went on to become a teacher (fully qualified before Karen harps in) so my repertoire is wide.
Most importantly the kids LOVE the subject. A lot of them don't get to cook at home, and a lot of them go home and make the recipes again for their families. The almost instant results is what they love. It's a shame not all parents are on board and can be as enthusiastic and open minded as their kids. For the sake of a few quid and a trip to the shops, the joy and learning it brings to most kids is immeasurable.
Ps - schools always provide ingredients for the ppg/free school meals families.

👌🏼

All food supplied by our public school except for their final assessment dish where they all had to choose their own recipe and bring in the ingredients.

Our school food tech is all about paddock to plate and they get a lot of their fresh ingredients from the school farm.

Yep , we are paying so expect to parent less. 😁

Previous teacher supplied ingredients, new one cba in my opinion

More likely the previous teacher was supplying the stuff although it wasn't part of her job but was doing extra. New one probably rightly so isn't doing extra work she's not paid for

I remember doing home ec at high school and having to take in the bigger ingredients - fish meat etc. But the commonly used things like milk, spices, eggs etc were provided

Both my DC took in their own ingredients, as did I, 30 years before. I honestly thought most kids did. I still remember my Cookery basket we all had them. God I sound old!

edited to add, I did go to an all girls school!

My ds isn't finding it pointless; in fact, it's one of his favourite subjects. He does not like cooking at home, although of course we make him do so at least once or twice a week, and will avoid using the majority of the equipment we have in the kitchen. He is afraid of the heat, yet hates being watched, and is very easily stressed and flustered. He will cook at school though and looks forward to doing so, and is then happier to re-make it at home.

Yea kids have to and we always had to too, you pair up and the school tells who’s bringing in what. Can’t believe that any schools provided food, the fee at the start of the year for it must have been substantial!! And in the nicest possible way op I hope you still made the ‘ah that was lovely’ noises

Yes standard to take in the ingredients, DS1 did food tech and often wouldn’t tell me till the last minute what he needed. DH cooks a lot so most baking ingredients and spices we had, but sometimes if he needed raspberries or chicken we had to go to supermarket before school. So pleased DS2 didn’t take food tech as an option. My two are early 20’s now, our son who took food tech never cooks, our son who didn’t cooks regularly 😂 why did I bother!

Everything supplied by school for free with us and they even manage to cater for DD2's extensive list of allergies. Scottish state school.

Yes we have to provide. I agree, it would be better to provide and charge and cheaper. My son never brought his food home anyway, daughter was better.

Daughter is vegi so would almost always have to make something else to cook.

I'm not sure if that's aimed at me but there are many meats and vegetables that can be substituted for the more expensive produce.

Many pupils want to make dishes that are stupidly expensive and the parents seem to be happy to pay and then blame the teachers.

Our school wouldn't have the space to prep and provide ingredients for pupils- it's a big task to get all that ready and store it.
We have 2 food rooms with 5 lessons a day- not enough room or time to get it all ready.
Pupils are provided with those ingredients for which you'll just need a teaspoon of.
Other "main" ingredients go in the fridge first thing on the morning.

When I was in school we went in before registration to drop our ingredients off. So we weren't carrying them around all day. We could put them in the fridge if needed..

My son had to take in a teaspoon of milk!!

On another occasion he had to take some ghee. Bearing in mind I live in a village, I had to drive 24 miles to our nearest city, pay to park, buy a huge tin of ghee (the only size I could find), and drive home again. He only used a tiny amount and in the end we threw the rest away!

I don't know why schools can't give you the option to provide the ingredients for you. They could charge a bit extra and make some money out of it. It would still be cheaper for me than buying lots of things I'll never use again!

My children went to a special needs school all ingredients were provided. But they used to take them out on a minibus and buy the ingredients with them. Also helps them to learn to budget.

Yes. Not a problem.

I used to proudly bring home meals I had cooked at school, like lasagne, only to have my mother scrape them straight into the bin saying “we’re not eating that muck.” I am still upset about that now. Please do not underestimate the impact that your words and actions may have on your child.

Yes and I did at school too so it’s nothing new. They never ask for anything massively expensive but it’s often awkward to transport like one egg for example, I always wrap half a roll of cling film around it and hope for the best.