about Food Tech? And the cost?

[AlwaysInBed]

I think Food Tech is way too expensive.

DD's first term of doing Food Tech (she missed a term and a half of school last year, due to a serious illness, so missed a term of Food Tech) is next term. Today we got sent out the recipes/ingredients osit (why now?) and we can't afford it, end of.

AIBU to think there should be a way of receiving financial support? Alternatively, in each class, every student pays in x amount and then people receiving (for example, FSM, tax credits, etc;) don't have to pay as much or anything.

There's £5 worth of ingredients, roughly, per project, and cooking is once every two weeks. How does that work out? I will end up having to get food off my mother, who's not exactly well off either, but for many people, their mother isn't an alternative. What do they do?

skinny There are always essential ingredients and non essential! I think one way round it is for FT teachers to split the list in two! When DD does food tech she will get value/ basic/ no frills / aldi/ lidl products all the way without all the little extras! No harm in that! :)

YANBU Food tech is stupidly expensive, when I did technology and engineering at school and college I never paid for materials, surely ingredients would come under that budget? I wasnt alowed to take part in a lot of food tech lessons because we couldnt afford ingredients. That or my mum would give me the money fir ingredients but not be able to drop me off or pick me up so Id end up with a tenners worth of donuts and biscuits for lunch. Oh last thing, never ever ever send in a nice baking dish. I broke 2 of my mums on the bus when i was at school a few years ago, she was not pleased!

DD isn't allowed to leave anything out and if you can't afford the garnishes etc then it will affect the gcse grade.

Thank Christ my DC can drop this soon. One effort was burnt (by teacher) and inedible, the Christmas cake cost over fifteen quid (ingredients and tins we didn't have - we cook from scratch but don't bake as have a tiny house) including three hours worth of electricity.

Nobody we know even likes it (and for it to be nice, doesn't it have to be fed with alcohol?) so a waste of time, good food, money and energy. Takes the economy out of home economics

My dd cant substitute or leave out ingredients unless they are specified as optional.
They cook every second week, the first week they cook their choice, eg dd will cook a chicken dish, in the next lesson they will be expected to recreate the recipe adapting the contents to suit other tastes or cultures, at that point they may change the ingredients, veg instead of meat etc.

All free here (Scotland) and included, although they often cook tiny portions (a quiche the size of a jam tart, for example). Anything where parents have to contribute to paying for materials / ingredients etc for an education, in my opinion, means that the education is no longer "free" or "fair". Schools that do this at all (in any subject) are bringing market forces into education. Your GCSE grade is better because you could afford a bay leaf and I only managed to get a bit of parsely etc etc.

I see this with those on FSM but also, I agree with someone above, it often hits those who are just above the (fairly arbitrary) "poverty line" who get nothing to support them as so end up struggling more.

Take it up with governors as schools need to find a way of ensuring that education is free, as it is intended to be. If this means (as someone above) that they eat the food in school and don't take it home (thereby not "subsidising" the home food budget) well that would work.

V