to think school cooking lessons are.....

[NellyJob]

a joke when the morbidly obese 'food tech' teacher ditches the healthy recipes from the school cook book and has the class make a super sugary swiss roll? when i say fat, I mean she is so heavy as to not be able to wear normal clothes or stand up straight? and she is teaching my daughter about nutrition when all these years I have been doing my best to keep her slim and fit? and this teachers daughter is also obese as are her husband and son.....
or would I sound like a twat complaining about this?

If the only food your dd cooks is fattening desserty-type stuff, then YANBU to complain.

If they cook a variety of food, the teacher's weight is irrelevant.

Her family's weight is completely irrelevant.

But in any event you are being very judgy which in my view is more offensive than being fat.

Being obese is not a criterion for removing a teacher from her post. Not even for Ofsted. By the sounds of it, distributing a Government publication on healthy nutrition is an obligation which the teacher has fulfilled. She is not responsible for the sanctimonious tone of the booklet. If it is a Government booklet it is not a scheme of work, therefore the teacher is not obliged to teach to the recipes contained in it. It may be that the scheme of work focuses on baking this term and moves on to savoury and fresh over the following terms. You could always ask.

I'm off down the safari park with some sherbet. Seeing that is now on my bucket list
Op if she makes cakes every week she must be a master baker by now?
Teacher's weight has nothing to do with what she teaches unless she makes them leave all the cakes with her for tasting.

Woah steady on here lovely ladies! Schools are given their instructions but at the end of the day it's down to us to teach how to cook to our little darlings.

ch1110 I read that as how to cook our little darlings

extreme

cardibach OK, thewashfairy I get it now. You are one of those people who know nothing about schools or teaching except what their DCs tell them but feel it is quite alright to criticise. WHy don;t you home educate then? Where there's a will there's a way, I'm sure...
You're very wrong in your assumption there. I do know a lot about my DC's school,am very involved with their education and don't just go by what my DC tell me.
I do not wish to home educate,I am very happy with the school they go to. That doesn't mean I have to like everything they do and am not allowed to have any criticism, does it??
The subject of the OP was 'school cooking lessons' so that's what I'm responding to.

think I might have touched a nerve with cardibach - cariad it's the school on the hill?

It is pretty obvious that they should be using the cooking classes to teach the kids how to make healthy food, the only thing my DCs have ever made at school are biscuits, cakes and cheese melted on a muffin

ds cooked a stirfry last week, and soup the week before.

It is possible to cook proper food in an hour(ish).

He has also cooked cakes, scones, pancakes and lots of sweet things.

Cooking anything is really good for children, and unfortunately there are many parents whose cooking skills include shoving chicken nuggets in the oven or calling the local takeaway. So cooking (anything) in school is great. As is teaching any nutrition.

But if parents continue to get so hysterical about the whole thing I suspect the day is coming when cooking in schools will no longer be allowed. One friend of ds's cut his hand when chopping onions, and his mum went in and complained that the knife was too sharp. I mean ffs, he was 14, he should be able to use a knife.

Nelly Job You keep saying that her teacher is teaching her about nutrition. So what's the problem exactly? She's learning about nutrition in a Food lesson and you're unhappy because she has made a swiss roll which contains a trace of fat and 70 calories per slice (as mentioned).

Along the way she might also have learned something about accurate weighing and its importance in a recipe like this (Food Science) unless you weighed it for her, in which case - tut tut. She has most likely learned to use an oven safely, handle an electric whisk, organise herself in a very limited time frame,take responsibility for clearing up (which also involves teamwork), work independently and in a group and listen appropriately. She has also learned a reasonably difficult skill in the whisking method and rolling up the sponge correctly.

But instead of reflecting on this you choose to have a go at her teacher's appearance.

yes but it was not A swiss roll, eg singular......it is cakes every week as I said.
and the teachers are quick enough to judge on appearance and make assumptions (another story perhaps) -

Now if you had talked about cake every week that would have been an interesting discussion about school cookery.

duh

Perhaps you can start a 'diary of a fat cookery teacher'.

Come back each week and post what they have cooked, and we can judge if it is acceptable for fat people to eat these items, or if they should just sub it for Ryvita and boiled lettuce.

Perhaps you should move your daughter to another school as you clearly have such a low opinion of the staff in general, I'm sure they'd be delighted to see the back of you and celebrate with lots of cake!

lol @ Joan - not a bad idea! I will keep you posted!
Justspidero - do you mean that if my daughter is enrolled in a school I have no right to question anything? Weird.....

You have every right to question it, but not so much to insult the woman and her entire family....but then I think you know that.

The skills involved in making a swiss roll are so advanced that I can't do it.

Anyone can throw a spag bol together but doing cakes requires proper skills that are transferable to other recipes.

All my swiss rolls have turned into chocolate logs at the last minute

The icing covers up and holds together the broken mess that lies inside

At least she gets to cook something. Home economics in my school 18 years ago was a farce. Every week it was 'flapjacks' except for one week where we made melon soup. I think that involved mixing the melon with honey and whizzing it in a food processor.

Oh god, 18 years ago... I feel so, so old.

OP you are a twat and your attitude is vile!

For what its worth I'm a massive fatty. I know loads about nutrition and eat a balanced diet just fucking loads of it

I don't see how this woman's size has anything to do with her abilities as a teacher. If this was a slim teacher baking cakes then would you be as bothered? Also baking cakes requires loads more cooking skills than chopping a salad...

Yabu

Im a food teacher . I am also a size 16....not sure if that is too fat for the op or if i can continue teaching.

We teach swiss roll once in year 8 and probably once in year 10 as part of an investigation into properties of ingredients. I charge £7:50 per year which covers all ingredients unless the pupils decide to bring in extras ( chicken for the veg curry, chocolate for decorating cakes etc) we teach a variety of healthy meals and basc skills which then allow pupils put skills together to make their own meals

Swiss roll shows a different way of making a cake rise (chemical vs mechanical), plus the usual,weighing, measuring, ratios, timing, using an electric whisk safely ( unless im feeling mean then it will be using a baloon whisk takes ages!) team work, evaluation and planning skills. The fact it has no fat init allows for discussion on complex and simple carbohydrates and fat and the impact in the diet ( i am allowed to know this, university didnt have a weight limit on nutrition lectures )

Swiss roll is also a government recommended recipe from when license to cook was in operation - as was fruit salad - teaches valuable knife control skills especially for year 7 and you would be amazed at how many 11 year olds have never tasted a pear.

Op feel free to complain if your dd is making swiss roll every week but dont blame it onthe fact the teacher is overweight as you will just sound pathetic.

I think there's two issues being raised in this thread:

Is there any harm in the cookery teacher ignoring the text book every now and again to make something fun and sweet tasting (no, in my opinion)

Should an extremely overweight person be teaching young children about healthy eating and nutrition (seems a bit contradictory and ironic in my view but what can you do? Its not really something you can make a formal complaint about).

As long as, at the end of the day, your dd can also make a few basics like soup, a stir fry, an omelette etc. and has a fundamental grasp of nutrition, that's what really matters.

Oh go and get a cake and a grip OP!