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

[BlackeyedSusan]

dd and ds made pizza, including the sodding bases. when I can afford a sodding blast furnace we might try it again. they are 4 and 6. I am hoping that they will be able to do more than sprrinkle a bit of topping on a pizza base by the time they are in secondry school.

[Tingalingle]

I don't understand why the school cannot buy the ingredients in bulk and then just get a contribution to cover costs from the parents.

Ours does this for all the main part of the recipe and asks them to fund their own choc chips/grated carrot/disgustingly inventive extra ingredient. Thank god for common sense.

[starfishmummy]

Ds's school provide all the ingredients. (as do the school run after school club) There is a girl in his class who has coelinc disease and they manage not to contaminate her food....

[ificandream]

picnicbasketcase really wish they would do that at my childs school.hate trying to pack the eggs in so they dont get smashed on the way.

[Bunbaker]

"Ours does this for all the main part of the recipe and asks them to fund their own choc chips/grated carrot/disgustingly inventive extra ingredient. Thank god for common sense"

They do that at DD's school as well.

FW Food tech is compulsory in years 7 and 8. Not sure about year 9 as DD is in year 8. I think it should be compulsory because being able to cook is a far more useful life skill than being able to make a metal executive toy or a plastic mobile phone holder.

I also think that the timetabling should be better organised so that the children get two hours so that they can do some proper cooking from scratch. DD's DT food tech teacher is lovely and inspired DD to do more cooking at home, and that is how it should be.

[seeker]

I would just ignore the request for bought grated ingredients and send home grated (having made the child do the grating) in a sealed bag.

[Anthracite]

That is crazy that they are not allowed to chop and grate in school. Surely the point of lessons is to learn the skills? That is the priority for DDs schools, but they both do Home Economics. Is that different from Food Tech?

I'm actually a fan of the DDs going to the supermarket and buying their own ingredients. That is an important skill too.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

Anthracite
"That is crazy that they are not allowed to chop and grate in school"

chopping and grating would depend on the school, the children and how the lessons are set out.

[TiredyCustards]

Grated cheese on a pizza

Surely if they're making the base up with yeast they have time while it's rising to prep the toppings.

Food tech was a joke when I was at school too (90s). One time we made pasties and I wasn't aware that you had to cook the potatoes first

[BikeRunSki]

Goodness. My DC are still tiny, but whatever happened to Home Economics?

[Madamecastafiore]

We had this. I expected dd to come home with a pizza big enough to feed 3 kids, what she brought home was 2 pizzas the size of compact discs!

She did apple crumble yesterday, that was big enough for the whole family if you were happy to eat apples that weren't peeled, which IMO is really odd in a dessert.

At her old school though she came home with half naked cakes, lesson wasn't long enough apparently and teacher told them to stick then in the oven for 5 minutes when they got home!! WTF!!!

[Sallystyle]

My teen is doing GCSE catering and makes some really lovely expensive dishes. Thankfully it is all supplied by the school and we pay nothing.

[fuzzpig]

Thanks for the suggestion DameFanny I will look into it. Have been considering one of those mini veg chopper things as well (we do have a fab food processor but it's too heavy for me now and, as you say, difficult to clean!) :)

The timetable issue is a good point. At DSDs' school they do this quite well - they run on a two week timetable so on week A they'd have a shorter lesson where they do planning/nutrition, and on week B they have a double lesson where they cook and taste. This means they were doing a new dish every 2 weeks which is how it should be IMO - they've learned a lot of practical skills and have a decent base of meal ideas.

At my (grammar) school however anything vocational was very much looked down on, so in all design/food tech lessons it was 95% paperwork and 5% practical. Now I do understand the importance of the planning/design, nutrition, cost comparison, evaluating etc but it meant that in our entire food tech course we made TWO things. A pasta dish... and a sandwich.

[ArbitraryUsername]

DS1's school provide the basic ingredients (for free) and have us buy the extras DS1 has decided on. This is why the huge bill and ludicrous ingredients are usually his fault. Haggis scones anyone?

[ArbitraryUsername]

90% of my (cookery) home ec lessons at school were about making cakes. There was no planning. You just turned up (with 50p) and were issued with ingredients and shown how to do the recipe. It usually involved sharing an egg with your partner.

[Ambridge]

OP, YANBU. 'Not allowed' to bring in home-grated cheese because it might go off? This is ridiculous

What about teaching useful lessons about the real shelf-life of foods so people don't throw perfectly good items away because 'it's past its sell-by date'? We have a huge problem in this country, we're completely out of touch with what we eat and how to buy it, store it and cook it.

I did Home Economics as it was called then - we actually cooked things from scratch. I still do that today and I would be appalled at the idea of buying tomato sauce - one of the easiest things to make - in a jar. And £9? To make a pizza?

Madness.

[onefewernow]

I think the food tech teacher who asked how the shopping was meant to be done just wants an easy life.. And I say that as an ex teacher myself, though not in that subject.

How difficult could it be to order a bulk purchase once a term of basic ingredients and things like vanilla essence? I think it would take less time than sorting out the kids who forgot to bring stuff, by far.

Worse, such a system is letting down poor children, especially in these straitened times. And finally, leaving the resulting half to sit and do nothing is not inclusive, which is poor practice .

[ElsieOops]

I think the school are bonkers asking the kids to bring pre-packed ready grated cheese in.

But even more so, YABU pandering to what they are asking for. I'd just do the ingredients from home as you suggested, just grate your own cheese. Make up a tomato sauce and bung it in a tub to take in.

[PatPig]

I would make my own 'pizza topper', gently fry up half an onion (non-pre choppped), add can of chopped tomatoes, a squeeze of tomato paste (or tsp sugar if you don't have any tomato paste), tsp of dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried oregano. Cook gently for 20 minutes until no longer runny.

They can eff off with chopped onions and pre-grated cheese, just chop/grate your own and put it in a zip-loc bag.

[anklebitersmum]

It's not just me. Hoorah

Two hour long lessons (three if you include the initial demonstration) to make a pizza. Please send £1 for the base ingredients and then provide ingredients pre chopped the next week

Mind you this was the same teacher that marked DS down for bringing in a 'real' pineapple. Apparently tinned is best for 'healthy fresh fruit salad'.

I despair, I really do.

[Binkyridesagain]

DD was told that brown sugar was healthier than white sugar when she had to make a Healthy Fruit crumble. Thankfully oldest DS has missed out on cookerylessons at school, so I havent't had to go throught this with him, Youngest though will have to do them, I am not looking forward to it.

[MortifiedAdams]

Even more determined now to send dd to my secondary school which doesnt do cookery. Seems like a roght fart on for little or no return (in terms f both food and actual learning).

[fuzzpig]

Apparently tinned is best for 'healthy fresh fruit salad'.



Nothing wrong with tinned fruit in juice (NOT syrup, I wonder if the teacher ensured that when listing ingredients?) especially for price but how does one equate fresh with tinned?

[fuzzpig]

I could murder a fresh pineapple right now.