to be deeply sceptical about "food technology"

[hatwoman]

just back from an open evening at our local secondary school and had the pleasure to look at the food technology department...they seemed to do lots of "projects"...eg designing a questionnaire to find out what type of food a "target group" might want...and watching cut apple go brown . When I asked a sixth former if she knew how to bake a cake she said "erm...yes...but that's because I do it at home". shouldn;t they teach, erm, cooking? you know, how to make a white sauce, how to cook mince so that you can make spag bol, chilli or shepherds pie...how to cook a stew, a basic 4-4-4-2 sponge with butter cream icing that you can knok up in 10 mins without getting a recipe book out.

I remember Food Tech from school........we never actually cooked anything. I seem to remember making sandwichwes and salds , but never anything hot!

sandwiches and salads obviously. I keep trying to kid myself that I can touch type!

Mini I can't teach the kids to sew becuase I can't sew. If I try I start screaming in boredpm and have an yrge to hit myself hard with a colander.

Likewise I am sure people with cooking etc.

Some kids are academic, some aren't, all need to live.

And LMAO that my kids would need to worry about what subjects an RG group Uni wants to see: that is limited to a small group of kids isn;t it?

Excepting ds4 (who may be a genius but is currently a toddler so too small to know) of the two in MS I;d quite like it if ds2 can write legibly by the time he hits a6, and ds1 can manage a day in class without barking at a teacher.

RG my arse! If I can get them to go to the Spar alone I;ll achieved something

(and BTW I am a postgrad student myself, so not anti uni ed, just knowing my kids!)

i took food tech as gcse, i currently work as a cake maker and decorator and (if i do say so myself) am an amazing cook.

i got a c as my paperwork was less than useless and the (written) exam (there was no practical exam) was stupid - re-design the cheese burger in a bun. how many ways can you put a burger in a bun with cheese thats right you can add bacon, or blue cheese or even make a chilli burgur or chilli relish to go with it.

my sister on teh other hand got an A* and by her own admission can't cook. not just cant cook, but really cant cook, she is unsure how to re-heat beans or boil an egg

Oh I agree Sancti. I can't sew either!

Just thinking there seems to be a gap ... parents don't teach these skills because they don't know how/don't have time... schools don't teach them because they are not academic or vocational subjects. (instead they teach Food Tech and Textiles which I suppose are more academic/vocational versions of cooking and sewing and therefore seen as more within school's remit.)

We could decide that schools should teach cooking, sewing etc. But then I suppose there would be less time for other subjects. The question then is what should go to make room.

"I wonder if there is a market for sewing/cooking/basic DIY/first aid after school classes for children?"

We have a cookery club, a sewing club and a gardening club after school (Primary) Don't know about a 'market' they are run by teachers and thus free.
We frequently cook things we've grown too.

Oh I can sew after a fashion. I just can't thread the bloody needle anymore

Actually I remember cookery club at my junior school

It didn't really teach us to cook in any methodical way though - more messing around with fairy cakes. Difficult really because it is the sort of thing you learn as you go along.

agree cat64

I was under the impression that Food Tech etc were options rather than compulsory.

If they're compulsory then definitely should have cooking instead. (Why on earth should watching an apple go brown be compulsory?)

Just ditched food tech to teach Hospitality and catering.

More practical less paperwork.

I posted about this on a different thread the other day but my DSDs just started food tech in yr8, they have done fruit salad (they didn't even get to choose their own fruit!) and 'dippy divers' - I thought ooh, that sounds more interesting... until DSD told me that meant cucumber and carrot sticks. I thought maybe they were making a dip for said dippy divers, but no.

DSS did food tech through to GCSE and agrees it is a total joke.

In my school we did technology (Resistant Materials, divided into woodwork/metalwork, Textiles, Electronics & Food Tech) on a rotation in sets (not mixed ability) at KS3. Then when we picked our options in Y9 we had to pick one, though for some bizarre reason electronics was replaced with graphics and res mat was combined into one subject.