AIBU to think this is a rediculous about for a school DT lesson to cost?

[Theas18]

Just back from sainburys. Am an aldi shopper and £70 a week easily feeds 5of us....we are on a budget of sorts.

Dd2 is making Thai green curry on Monday. There has been no cooperation re ingredients ( previously they've cooked and organised in groups), so I have had to buy the whole list :

Green curry paste £1.99
Coconut milk £1.99
Fine green beans £1.50
Spring onions 70p
Lime 30p
Chicken breasts £4
Chilies £1.50

Skip the coriander. I hate it !

That'll be a cool £11.98 . For 1 meal, that almost certainly will not serve all 5 of us even.

Not to mention if we really should be eating chicken that's been dragged to school, cooked ( possible in adequately in a fixed lesson time) then either refrigerated whist hot or not refrigerated at all, been dragged on the bus to her piano lesson and finally home!

I am almost in tears- the eldest goes back to uni soon I can't afford to chuck £12 away ...

believe ou me coconut milk in waitrose was £1.99

cooking in school great idea

but atleast teach them the basics first,shepherds pie,rock cakes,spag bol etc,maybe be boring but they learn popular dishes and plenty of prep in those dishes

and no i never taught my kids at 3yr old to cook bolognese at age 3

Your 3 year olds donnt "help" you cook? Get a chair and put stuff in the pot, watch you cook, grate the cheese pass the veg etc?

People don't do baking with 3 year olds? Scones, cup cakes, pancakes, chapattis etc?

i do nailak and my elder two can.cook on their own and the younger ones help.as well. but time and time again i have seen people saying their children cant/wont etc. lots of parents dong involve their children in food prep and cooking.

Well.Tbh I.think.that is.the problem, food tech is just that food TECHNOLOGY, it shouldnt be about how to boil pasta and fry and egg, in normal families who feed their children normally these should be skills that are gradually learnt at home, the same way kids learn to wash themselves or brush their teeth or whatever.

You paid well over the odds for the paste and milk. You can't blame school for that.

It depends where you live though. Where I am coconut milk isn't available at the supermarket unless I drive to the large Sainsburys 20 minutes away. And it most certainly IS £1.99 there as I've bought it recently. I'd have to buy Thai green curry paste from there too, I wouldn't get that locally either.

I don't have an Aldi or a Lidl near to me, not all of us live where there's a good selection of supermarkets.

Do what I did and write to the school and tell them that your child will not be taking part in cookery lessons. My son has a long walk to school (no convenient bus and I have to leave for work before him) and could not carry his school books, PE kit, school net book and ingredients/finished product. (no lockers at school). He did try it, but the food came home all mangled after me paying a lot of money for ingredients. He did theory work during the cookery lesson and we cooked the cookery lesson meal at home. I took photos and sent them to the teacher.

It's pointless for the teacher to buy all the food and divvy it up.

The child should be shopping for what they need (or rummaging in the cupboards) and doing any weighing out either at home or in the lesson.

If everything is just handed to them, all they have done has assembled them according to a strict set of instructions. No independent thinking or creativity.

It was like this when I was at school. The meals were expensive. We had no place to store them once cooked. And if we had left over stuff (flour etc) the school kept it!

Why are people debating on how much cheaper they can get the food? Yes I'm sure we could find some reet bargains if we shopped around but at the end of the day she's a busy mum and has to fit this in with a weekly shop. Lots of us haven't got time to be 'popping' to Home Bargains for a bloody curry paste for 50p cheaper (costs more than that to actually get there)

I'd have probably got all that for about nine quid, but that is still bloody expensive. And why can't they eatit? Would you want to eat chicken that's been carried around all over the show in a tupper box?

I think. People forget/ don't realise what shops are like if you live rurally- out local secondary has a tiny and ££ tesco express, and waitrose; nothing else for 5 miles and then it is tesco again, but not a big one. Waitrose is well stocked but not cheap, and the bigger tesco would cost petrol and not neccessarily have everything.

I think their lesson should include learning what you can and can't swap- eg the paste and coconut milk are probably neccessary for a Thai curry, but the meat bd veg are pretty interchangeable- broccoli, peas, salmon, all work well in Thai curry.

Knowsabitabiuteducation
Do you really believe its the kids that go out and buy their cooking ingredients, not mum scrabbling around at the last minute trying to get it all.
My dcs school provide the ingredients for a small one off payment. I was immensely grateful for it.
Not sure what they do gcse or 6th form level.

My DDs went/go to the supermarket to choose their ingredients. OK, I was with them much of the time (basically to make sure they got the BOGOFs and other offers). They have certainly rummaged for what we have in the cupboards too.

So, yes, some kids do go out and get their own ingredients. Why shouldn't they? It's part of the learning process.

My dcs are very rarely with me when I go shopping, due to me working. They are quite capable of buying the stuff themselves, but its a pain logistically.

I feel your pain. Its really hard isnt it :(

DS is doing fruit salad tomorrow and needs 5 fruits, 2 of which must be exotic. He also brought a letter home asking for money for materials, which is £9. He even has to take in his own dishcloth and

We went to the market yesterday to get them and the cost came in at £6.20. I shop mainly when he is at school though so he rarely comes to the supermarket with me.

dishcloth and teatowel

We also had to buy from the school, an apron and a hat. £10. I lived in an area where the majority of people were on benefits, we were a bit better off but it was hard for us so felt sorry for the worse of families.

We also had to make a 3 course meal. Cost a fortune.

The materials at DCs school is £10 for a term, that is all their ingredients for the term.

I too am getting fed up with demands for expensive ingredients from my DD's school. She is year 9, hates food tech, and isn't taking it for her options next year, thank goodness!

I think, as has been said, that they should be taught about cooking on a budget. As it stands, DD cooks every 3 weeks. On average the ingredients cost me around £10 per cookery session. Her cooking lesson is first thing. The fridge isn't big enough to store everyone's cooking, so it's pot luck as to whether your cooking gets to go in the fridge or not. I wouldn't mind the wastage as much if she'd made something that cost a couple of quid, but for £10 a time it drives me mad. There is no way I would eat anything meat based that has been cooked at school either, and half the time they are quite odd recipes rather than family favourites, which I think would be a preferable thing for them to learn about.

bruffin, that's good - that's how it should be! If you ask me, it's part of learning about cooking to understand how much cheaper it is to buy in larger quantities... The kids could have done a budget for how much the ingredients for a meal would cost if they all bought their own (using 100g of a 500g bag of pasta, for instance), then how (very) much cheaper it would be if they grouped together and bought bigger bags to share.

There was a girl in DS1's class who was always 'ill' on DT cookery days. Her family were living on a low income, so I suspect this was because they couldn't afford the ingredients. :(

IMO, schools should be aware of the budget pressures on families, and should teach kids to cook 'staple' meals, not exotic ones... Shopping together for the ingredients could be part of PHSE too!

I was absolutely appalled at the cost of my daughter's collect lessons. One week they made two recipes which added up (on the Tesco website using cheap brands) to £16.50.

I asked the school what provision they made for children who could not afford this (I can but still got grumpy). I also asked why they were specifying tiny amounts which would lead to huge food waste. (one teaspoon treacle, half ounce fresh ginger etc) with no irganised sharing. They refused to answer my enquiry. I went to my MP, they refused to answer him just stating that they would pay for my daughter if I had a problem. I didn't - I just wanted them to think about what they were asking.

Hmmmmmm, do I smell the start of a national campaign?!

Wouldn't you just buy a big bag of pasta to use at home and let her take 100g of it?

Mine have bought small quantities for ease, such as the smallest bottle of vegetable oil, and then just take this back and forth to school when needed. No decanting needed. Things like soy sauce, honey, syrup just to to school in their original containers and come home again. All in our traditional wicker basket :)

I think if school provided ingredients for £10 a term, I would decline this and insist on our own ingredients.

National campaign bloody good idea. Am ideally placed to help (work in parliament) but one angry mum is very different to a chorus.

'Cooking for the Future'?!
The only downside is we'd have to involve Jamie Oliver, suppose!