Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Bloody school cookery!!!

139 replies

mrsshears · 30/11/2011 15:22

DD has just announced that she needs all the ingredients for this for tomorrow,as i think is standard with most teenagers.
so we have just rushed to the supermarket to get everything,dd then produces the booklet from school which lists everything in ounces and pints etc erm i thought we were now working in mls and grammes ?? and then tells me i have to send a dish into school to cook it in and weigh out all the ingredients at home before hand! why the hell don't we just cook the thing at home!!! AIBU?

OP posts:
OhdearNigel · 07/02/2012 13:59

Kitty, I bought the Mary Berry christmas cake - at a knowdown £2 (so I bought 4 of them and split up the ingredients for other things). I did make one of hte packs up - it's very nice

OhdearNigel · 07/02/2012 14:02

I have an idea for the food tech teachers - could you send the recipes home for the upcoming term with your children ? Then the parents/guardians have plenty of time to get the ingredients/containers organised.

I have no children at school (yet) and as I went to private school the school provided our ingredients so I have no idea whether this would be practical

TheParanoidAndroid · 07/02/2012 14:05

That bit about fresh pineapple for the posh and precious Gifted and Talented to learn extra skills like coring and tinned for the plebs less academic...thats a joke right? Tell me its a joke. Please? Confused

OhdearNigel · 07/02/2012 14:06

Food tech should definitely NOT be banned. Its curriculum time needs to be significantly increased to give the opportunity to give less advantaged children an opportunity to learn budgeting and to try and break the cycle of poor diet through ignorance and inability to cook. Lots of children get very poor diets at home and rarely see a fresh ingredient or something that isn't processed to within an inch of its life - for them HE at school is the only chance they get to learn how to cook [gets off soapbox].

It can also lead to one of the few remaining careers that appeals to young men that struggle with any sort of formal education at all

OhdearNigel · 07/02/2012 14:09

"The majority of 11+ yo should be able to go to the shops and buy a few bits without a parent."

Not without any money they can't.

OhdearNigel · 07/02/2012 14:11

"The teacher would need to have a full time technician. Our food teacher has one for 8 hrs per week."

Volunteers ? community payback ? would these be feasible ?

xmyboys · 07/02/2012 23:16

I do handout a recipe booklet at the start of each rotation. Ingredients are listed, students just need to know what they are making the next week. Still always some that slip through the cracks.
Plus they them have the recipes to experiment on the family at home

G&T students using fresh pineapple GrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrinGrin

FlightRisk · 07/02/2012 23:31

I'm sorry but that is exactly how I had to take my ingredients and the dish in when I was doing cookery 18 years ago.

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 08/02/2012 00:46

It's quite normal but bloody irritating! The last thing dd cooked at school cost me a fortune in ingredients, and I now have a store cupboard full of stuff that I wouldn't use. What really pisses me off is that three times now, I've bought ingredients, only to have dd come home and tell me the teacher was Ill and she hadn't been able to cook. So I've wasted my money on shopping that I didn't need. It's bloody irritating!

Dustinthewind · 08/02/2012 00:50

You could let her cook it at home and consider it homework.
Then you could all eat it and give her feedback.

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 08/02/2012 01:03

Yes, I could. It doesn't escape the fact that I spent my food budget on stuff I didn't need, for nothing though, does it!

ilovesooty · 08/02/2012 01:27

I expect it's also irritating if schools pay out for perishable ingredients and the pupils don't turn up that day.

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 08/02/2012 01:33

I'd be happy to pay in advance per term as another poster suggested. Sharing a bulk buy between the class would be much more cost effective!

Spermysextowel · 08/02/2012 02:32

What? None of the pupils? Surely the class could go ahead with only 75%? especially if they're making Angel Delight i.e. non-perishable ingredients as was my first cookery lesson.

TapirBackRider · 08/02/2012 03:59

My dcs school charges £10 a year; if a parent can't afford it, then ingredients are provided. If it's a case of won't rather than can't, then the child gets paired with a child that is cooking and observes.

lesley33 · 08/02/2012 08:08

My dcs and when I went to school as well - all paid some money for the ingredients each week. We/they weighed them at school as well. I had just assumed it was like that everywhere tbh.

xmyboys · 08/02/2012 10:02

Would be great to do measuring at school but time is a huge issue.
One school I was at had 45 min single lesson for pracs!! I would be in the prac room most breaks, tidying up, getting food out of ovens etc

CumberdickBendybatch · 09/02/2012 07:56

Just seen this Gredi Box on the Ovenu website - looks like it might be really useful? I don't have a DC at school yet though, so can't attest to that Grin

cory · 09/02/2012 08:46

"i have to send a dish into school to cook it in and weigh out all the ingredients at home before hand!"

I would be very surprised if the teacher had said "your mum has to weigh out all the ingredients at home"- no doubt what she said was "you have to weight out the ingredients".

teen speech, eh?

OnlyANinja · 09/02/2012 08:48

It's the out of season pineapple and the frilly basket that made me realise I'd read this before.

JazzyYazzy · 11/03/2014 16:52

I spent many loving, nurturing sessions with my mother sourcing and weighing and packing ingredients for school cookery lessons. Though cookery was not my forte my parents loved to try out my efforts from school. Learning takes place not just in the classroom. The preparation from home teaches children to shop economically and weigh and measure in the real world. Supportive parents will encourage and support their children in their learning and development.

JazzyYazzy · 11/03/2014 16:57

Maybe if I'm ever teaching this subject I'll shall endeavour to bring it up-to-date using all the latest technology, such as text alerts, and social network sites for the lists of ingredients/utensils and use metric quantities.

Fairenuff · 11/03/2014 17:02

Ds has always shopped for his own ingredients, right from Year 7 and he's doing catering for gcse now. I just give him the cash and he gets what he needs.

He does all his own weighing and measuring and sorts out what pots he needs the night before. I don't get involved at all, I think it's a great way to help prepare them for independent adulthood.

All I know about it is when he asks for money and when he brings the cooked items home for dinner.

Pippintea · 11/03/2014 17:04

ZOMBIE THREAD :(

Nocomet · 11/03/2014 17:05

YANBU
If schools aren't prepared to allow a whole afternoon for cooking the should give it up.

We do most if the prep at home, because despite in being a double lesson they have to spend time clearing up and writing pointless theory.