To think that this is excessive for a Food Tech ingredients list

[ModreB]

DS3 has food tech and was given a long list of specific ingredients to bring. Went to a big supermarket on the way home, got the list and the total came to nearly £9 . I wasn't buying branded products either, but supermarket own brands.

I am in the lucky position that I can afford this, albeit through gritted teeth but AIBU to think that some families would really struggle to pay this amount of money for 1 recipe, to make 1 portion to cook for 1 lesson, and that the sodding school and teacher should at least have some consideration for this!

What happened to teaching how to make affordable food as well

[Rosa]

Blimey £9 for a pizza .. I regularly make and doing a mental calculation a basic probably costs about £3 to make .... Then yes it depends on the toppings . Your son was right 15 mins is not enough time.....

[itsonlyapapermoon]

When I was at school (erm...15 years ago lol) we paid a levy at the start of the year that covered the cost of food tech. All the ingredients were laid on the tables ready for us to get cracking and we always had Food Tech over a double period so we had plenty of time for the prac and the accompanying bookwork as well. This was in Australia though.

[HamletsSister]

Theroseofwait - massive shortage of HE teachers in Scotland. Come up - you would be very welcome! Ours is due to retire in the next year or so. All ingredients supplied by the school and sourced from the local Co-OP. tiny class sizes!

[ModreB]

I am now beyond rage.

Food tech teacher was not in work. Replacement teacher took so long to decide whether to actually cook the pizza or not, going over the theory, they had 15 minutes left at the end of the lesson.

DS3 refused to make a pizza in 15 minutes, got a lunchtime detention, which is another fight on the horizon, so I come home to a furious 13 year old, bashing pizza dough in the kitchen, declaring that if the school are so stupid, he'll make the pizza himself

What result do you think if I bill the school for the wasted ingredients?

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

is it worth putting a call out on the school website or via the newsletter or asking teacher to send out to home e-mails to see if any other parents would like to join a group to coordinate the 'sourcing' of ingredients so you don't have to buy a full size for each session when sharing would give two or three a 'portion'?

[foodtech]

We would love to have you. All these teachers retiring and no one coming out. Home Economics is brilliant if taught correctly with the correct supportive management.

[theroseofwait]

Surely the problem here is that the schools aren't providing adequate support for food tech.

That is the problem in a nutshell.

foodtech - hello!! We've met on these thread before and I'm still plotting my escape North!!

[foodtech]

Some schools do proper Home Economics though. We certainly do. We cook healthy balanced meals and teach pupils about budgeting and they do the practical not us. It isn't easy in 50 minutes granted but it can be done. We also do not have a full time technician although it is within out head of departments remit to do the shopping (not all schools have this though if a faculty)

I do think the main problem in England is the class sizes. We have a maximum of 20 for practical lessons which makes life easier. Pupils love our subject and our numbers are very high (5 FT staff in a school of 1100) it just needs good management and a high regard for the subject as a whole.

Plus I certainly do know my subject although that's what happens when you need a subject specific degree to teach plus a post grad. We have had English food tech teachers who need to re train to teach Home Economics in Scotland as they do not have the knowledge.

[NorthernLurker]

I don't remember learning anything about cooking from food tech at school. We made a baked egg custard and fruit salad, scones and mushrooms on toast. That's all that comes to mind. My food tech teacher was a cow (sorry but she really, really was)

What I did learn was what order to wash up in.

Mind you textiles was as bad. I learnt how to use a twin tub washing machine in 1990!

[fuzzpig]

This is the first year in my entire career where I've had to stand in front of kids and advise them not to pick my subject if they think money may be an issue at home.

God that is really sad :(

I think asking students to prepare basic ingredients at home is preferable by far to insisting on buying ready prepared versions. Apart from being cheaper, it would also be a good way to introduce food preparation in the home, which in some homes may not actually happen - so if the child has to do it to avoid detention, it will get done, and maybe show a few parents that it's easier than they thought?

[Plomino]

This is the one subject that makes my blood boil . In the end I teamed up with another classmates mum, and we divided the recipe up between us so our respective DS's took in half the ingredients each .

But then my opinion of the Food Tech teacher went rapidly downhill the day that my son got a telling off for tasting the food . If he'd been double dipping I would have understood , but no . How the bloody hell can you tell if the dish is right , unless you taste it ? Apparently not . Apparently it just needs to look right . No matter that its got more salt in it than the Mediterrranean .

[Badvoc]

...you could probably get those at waitrose linerunner!:)

[ArbitraryUsername]

Surely the problem here is that the schools aren't providing adequate support for food tech. No one expects the science teachers to pop out and buy the chemicals for their practicals; they have technicians for that. It seems utterly ridiculous that the school can't arrange for someone to have responsibility for online ordering (coming straight from the school's money - no teacher should be putting themselves out of pocket and claiming it back) of the stuff needed for each week's practicals (and they should have adequate storage for this stuff). The teachers could submit their lists of requirements in advance and everything would be fine. Indeed, part of the planning activities for the kids could involve preparing the list of required ingredients to be submitted.

It would mean that 25 parents don't have to go out and buy a whole set of ingredients for their children to use hardly any of. It's much cheaper to buy stuff that gets used all the time in bulk. You can get the kids to supply the stupid extras they decide to add to make their individual abomination creation.

Although, sharing eggs is still crap. You never get half. And one person ends up with all white.

[anklebitersmum]

School and home economics always used to equate and in the current economic climate it should be made to equate in my opinion.

I learnt some invaluable kitchen skills from my year 1 & 2 (now year 7 & 8) home ec teacher. We did all sorts, from cottage pie upwards and all from scratch.
Used to have an ingredients and method lesson where we did which food groups ingredients were in, nutritional value etc etc and wrote up the required ingredients & method in our books for the next week.

The next week was bring in ingredients (unchopped) and make in the hour and a half lesson.

T'was basic cooking with standard ingredients.

[MrsMangelFanciedPaulRobinson]

Which is a bit of a ball ache on a cookery day morning when DD has forgotten the night before to sort her ingredients out!

[MrsMangelFanciedPaulRobinson]

At my DD's school all ingredients have to be prepared before the lesson, ie cheese grated, eggs separated, flour weighed out, or they get a detention!

[pigletmania]

Than students should be able to bring cheese that they ave already grated and onions tat tey have chopped at home. What if te students family are skint and cannot afford those ingredients. I would just bring tem in with te child

[KatieScarlett2833]

Why bother?
Why not just accept that school and cookery do not equate?

[theroseofwait]

Gin - yes, my Tesco points are the only silver lining for the shopping I do!! We do, on the whole, manage herbs and spices and for example today I made lemon curd with Year 8 so I bought in the cornflour as they only needed a dessert spoon each.

[ChunkyPickle]

theroseofwait - good grief - and they say that they're prioritising schools and healthy eating..

[theroseofwait]

The teacher sounds lazy (ready grated cheese and ready chopped onions).

No, we only have effectively 50 minutes to make something edible with 20 odd kids of varying skill. Grating cheese, along with weighing out ingredients, really can be done at home with very little difference to learning outcomes.

'Lazy' and 'Food Teacher' are, on the whole, mutually exclusive.

[theroseofwait]

DameFanny - no regarding the budget. I did manage it a couple of times but it's got something to do with the county's finance department not recognising any of the supermarkets as approved suppliers, and when I did do it I paid with a school debit card, they have now been withdrawn due to too much fraud!!!!

ChunkyPickle - yes, other schools do manage. They have a full time food technician who's paid to shop, weigh, store manage etc. We've been asking for one for nine years to my knowledge, and it was the same story at the school I was in before that. It's all down to cost, which again is why we can't just have spare ingredients to give to kids who we know can barely afford to eat as it is. We've had our budget cut down by 40% this year with more to follow and the hardship fund was the first thing to go. This is the first year in my entire career where I've had to stand in front of kids and advise them not to pick my subject if they think money may be an issue at home.

[pigletmania]

Yanbu at all shocking. I made pizza from scratch, Noway did it cost £9 . The teacher sounds lazy (ready grated cheese and ready chopped onions). I most certainly would have sent in those in a grated and chopped at home in a cool bag with a cooler thingy. With a 60p jar of pasta sauce, and a packet of bread flour and packet of yeast, from my cupboard, and tough shit if te school protest I'm shrt of money, £9 is a hell of a lot for one meal

[MadameDefarge]

DS's school provides all the ingredients and loans the students a tupperware box for the duration. He has made chilli con carne, fruit salad, chicken goujons and wedge potatoes....can't remember the rest! But I was impressed.

[MrsMangelFanciedPaulRobinson]

I agree, Gin; things like herbs and spices, different types of vinegar and syrups, those kinds of things that are difficult to find (if you live in a rural town as I do) and expensive to buy, and then end up wasted once a small amount has been used in the lesson