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Lessons you had in school that you’re not sure still happens

213 replies

Soubriquet · 07/01/2026 10:25

I remember doing cookery, woodworking and something with a solder iron. I can still remember the smell of the solder burning.

I did those in year 7. I also remember having to rush to local supermarket with my parents cos I needed last minute ingredients for my cookery lessons

My dd is in year 8 but she doesn’t do any of these lessons

OP posts:
Statsquestion1 · 08/01/2026 16:12

Soubriquet · 07/01/2026 10:25

I remember doing cookery, woodworking and something with a solder iron. I can still remember the smell of the solder burning.

I did those in year 7. I also remember having to rush to local supermarket with my parents cos I needed last minute ingredients for my cookery lessons

My dd is in year 8 but she doesn’t do any of these lessons

My DD is in the equivalent of year 8 (1st year) in Ireland. She does all of these.

Soubriquet · 08/01/2026 16:14

GalaxyJam · 08/01/2026 11:07

Have you never seen her timetable before or asked her what she does in school?! Maybe it’s just my DD but she tells me about every lesson she’s had that day!

Oh she does! It just came to me the other night that I had never heard her mention things like cookery and woodworking

OP posts:
CreativeAccounting · 08/01/2026 16:27

Grammar school - Seventies. We did cookery every week. And we learned all the basics. I can make every type of pastry (not that I do, of course). I learned all the cake making methods, sauces. desserts, ways of preparing and cooking vegetables, meat fish etc. Everything I know I learned then. I particularly remember making puff pastry, then wrapping strips of it around those conical metal things to make cream horns. And also, on one occasion, a proper Christmas cake, iced and decorated (must have cost a fortune)! It was a most excellent grounding. My daughter’s more recent experience of “Food Technology” was way inferior.

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scalt · 08/01/2026 16:58

Perhaps an oddly specific one: writing a children's story? I remember doing this in year 8. We were given children's stories to look at, such as Six Dinner Sid, to look at the language used, and then told to invent one.

@FirstCuppa We were never taught to use fire extinguishers, but I remember reading the instructions on them with fascination. We watched lots of videos about fire safety, but the emphasis was always get the hell out of there, rather than trying to tackle the fire yourself. The lovely book from the 1970s "Phoebe and the Hot Water Bottles" was discredited, because she uses her hot water bottles to put out a fire.

FirstCuppa · 08/01/2026 17:05

scalt · 08/01/2026 16:58

Perhaps an oddly specific one: writing a children's story? I remember doing this in year 8. We were given children's stories to look at, such as Six Dinner Sid, to look at the language used, and then told to invent one.

@FirstCuppa We were never taught to use fire extinguishers, but I remember reading the instructions on them with fascination. We watched lots of videos about fire safety, but the emphasis was always get the hell out of there, rather than trying to tackle the fire yourself. The lovely book from the 1970s "Phoebe and the Hot Water Bottles" was discredited, because she uses her hot water bottles to put out a fire.

Edited

I very vaguely remember that it was because of some terrible incident that had happened where children died in a fire (we were about 11 so around 1990-3) so maybe it wasn't strictly part of the curriculum, but I certainly think it should be.

rainbowunicorn22 · 08/01/2026 20:09

as said earlier, I was at school in the 1970s, and they set their own curriculum. some lessons do not seem to be done now or are under new names. The ones I remember are;
Music and Movement
commerce
typing
home entertainment where we cooked lunch for teachers, cleaned and kept a place tidy, had a room put by for this with full furniture, sofa, chairs, table etc
home economics
needlework, remember some girls making wedding dresses!
rural science was a very rural school lots of farmers kids so most of them knew all about country life
child care

weegiemum · 08/01/2026 21:26

When I was at school girls food Home Economics (cookery and sewing) and boys did woodwork and metalwork and technical drawing. I’m 55 so that’s probably why!

TheSalvadorsStickbymebaby · 09/01/2026 06:34

weegiemum · 08/01/2026 21:26

When I was at school girls food Home Economics (cookery and sewing) and boys did woodwork and metalwork and technical drawing. I’m 55 so that’s probably why!

I wanted to do home economics because I was interested in cooking.
Nope you can't it's only for girls.
I hated woodwork,tech drawing.
I'm slightly older thankfully times have changed

Trentdarkmore · 09/01/2026 07:22

weegiemum · 08/01/2026 21:26

When I was at school girls food Home Economics (cookery and sewing) and boys did woodwork and metalwork and technical drawing. I’m 55 so that’s probably why!

Same age and same situation.

JetFlight · 09/01/2026 07:32

My dc are at different secondary schools and both schools do food tech, DT and textiles

LilyCanna · 09/01/2026 07:58

My kids’ schools don’t teach cookery, DT or sewing (neither primary nor secondary). To be honest I don’t think I got much benefit from any of my own lessons in those subjects. I bought a mini sewing machine from hobbycraft a couple of years ago. I couldn’t get the thread at the proper tension and then couldn’t sew a straight line.
I wonder if there’s any evidence for cookery lessons in school actually helping reduce the amount of people who have no clue how to cook healthy food for themselves. Genuinely curious about that.
On a tangent I read recently that over 40% of secondary schools didn’t enter anyone for music GCSE which did shock me.

OllyBJolly · 09/01/2026 08:25

wavingfuriously · 08/01/2026 13:34

Private school ?

Nope - big comprehensive and then smaller school on remote Scottish island.

sashh · 01/03/2026 11:23

the80sweregreat · 07/01/2026 10:33

I didn’t do typewriting at school. Not sure why it wasn’t on our curriculum, but schools in the 70s and early 80s set their own lessons. The National curriculum wasn’t brought in till the mid 80s I believe
It would have been helpful for me I’m sure to do typewriting etc. I had to go to night school to do it

A lot depended on the type of school. I went to a comprehensive but it had been a secondary modern so had equipment like typewriters (they folded in to the desk so you could write as well as type).

We also had loads of domestic science rooms, three sewing rooms. There was even a 'flat' where you could learn to clean a bath and toilet, make a bed etc.

Lessons I did that don't exist, I'm fairly sure, hymns, we had a class where we learned and sang hymns.

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