Gobsmacked about daughter's food tech lesson

[dottybooboo22]

I've just been informed by dd that she's cooking next week in her food tech class. I have to buy the ingredients. I don't mind that but then she said they have to practise at home so they'll be able to make it in class
She then got all stroppy when I pointed out that it would cost twice as much for the stuff and wasn't it the whole point of the lesson to teach them how to make it??? Am I missing something here?

My sister and I still loathe classical music because it was forced on us at school.

I first heard Smetana's Ma Vlast at school. It remains one of my favourite pieces of music.

confuugled how do you make a syrup base?

I know lots of things are simple if you know how but my mum was one of those 'stick a tin of peaches in & job done' kind of people. I've learned loads from DH about actually cooking properly and although i actually dislike food/cooking a lot, it's satisfying to be able to make something well on the occasion.

OP no I don't think you are U to be annoyed. Any teaching that involves cooking costs a bomb and much of the time gets wasted until higher years. If you learn anything useful it's usually how not to kill yourself with chicken or to put the oven on before you start.

Never heard of a practice at home. My kids would have been screwed. I can't cook for toffee 😂

**Pardon me for thinking that's why I send her to school...to be taught!

This is gobsmacking for me! How can you not be bothered to teach your child a basic, necessary life skill. Food is essential to survival and you cant be bothered to teach or talk to your child about it?! Sorry, i find that amazing! My daughter has helped us cook since she was about 2, she is now 13 and cooks every Saturday, she finds a recipe, plans it and cooks it - she really enjoys the feeling of acheivment and loves experimenting with different cuisines. We are big time foodies and are of 2 different cultures and have lived abroad so have a mix of 3 cultures at home, this also helps with variety.

I've never asked students to practice at home before the lesson. I'm just grateful that parents provide ingredients. Is it a specialist teacher or a non specialist? A non specialist may want students to practice so the lesson runs smoother and less to cover in a short amount of time. Unfortunately these days there aren't enough qualified food teachers and some schools think anyone can teach it but the skill set is specialist and cooking at home is different to teaching 28 to produce something in 1 hour.
Schools that provide ingredients must have full time technicians for all the weighing out that needs to be done plus the shopping. No time to weigh,prepare, cook and clean in 1 hour. That's why I make sure all recipes are affordable, mainstream and suit all dietary needs. I've been asked for ridiculous things for my daughters food lessons elsewhere.

Food Tech GCSE is in its last year with 2017 the last exam. Changing to GCSE Food prep & Nutrition which is more science based and practical is skills based with focus on meals rather than numerous repetitive developments. No longer falls under D&T.

but surely it's the schools place to be teaching her,not mine!

WHAT? There are times when it's really hard to find words to truly cover a comment.

Wasteful spending on ingredients I can understand but considering the responsibility of cooking lessons being down to the teacher is wrong.

I'd rather the teachers were teaching something more useful like budgeting or how to deal with official forms that are baffling to many people.

But if you're doing cooking as a lesson and are expected to cook in class, why shouldn't that be taught in class, rather than reproducing something you've done at home? That just makes it a bit show-&-tell. Do something new at home - but then something new in school, too, which could be based on what was done at home, but why repeat the same thing?

I'm not against cooking in schools - not everyone will get the chance to learn at home, or learn about the major food groups, food hygiene, whatever else, if they don't get it at school, and there's a limited number of hours, so you have to make the most of that time.

Mind you, most of the people who did whatever it was called in my day up to GCSES were the ones who could already cook from home - that's where they really gained the interest, not at school. Is there much evidence of those who don't cook at home being keen on it at school? (Nadiya of GBBO learnt about baking from school, so I guess there are some cases of it - but it was still a food-oriented household, if not baking.)

StressedOne how lucky you are your daughter wants to do cooking with you and is wiling to follow a recipe. Sadly, not all kids are like that.

The school is either teaching cooking or it is not. If it is not teaching cooking then why are kids asked to bring in ingredience and cook in the school.

suzybe re "... considering the responsibility of cooking lessons being down to the teacher is wrong." If the teacher is not cooking and showing the kids how to cook in the 'cooking lesson' then what is the point of the cooking lesson or of the teacher being present?

There seems to be a massive mismatch between what parents expect or think happens in cooking lessons and what is really going on.

As lots of kids are not being taught to cook at home it would seem ideal for kids to learn at school. I don't see why they cannot also learn to fill in forms or budget for a home at school at the same time.

can't believe some of these comments. You actually think her mum should teach her how to cook the meal before she goes to school? What then is the point of cookery lessons? Please explain this to me? Would this apply to Maths? Geography? Economics? Dear Lord!

I really do despair sometimes. Should schools be responsible for everything now? And yes - yes it would apply to other subjects. Maths - yes. Geography - yes. As parents we are our children's prime educators in the most practical of subjects - and the best education is achieved by far if parents are supportive at home.

Italian greyhound
They do.

chocolate muppet
I agree with you. We have said why don't they just bring a matress and we'll look after them 24/7!

Unless you're very poor I son't understand why you're not encouraging your daughter, it sounds like she likes cooking and wants to do well in her lesson and her course work, just have the food for dinner and then it's not wasted.

If you're out of work at the moment I understand the problem, I've lived on a tiny budget and any surprise can be a nightmare but please I have a son who hates school and I would love him to want to do well, be glad your daughter has found a subject she likes so much.

My 2 only did it for 1 term, in the whole of se ondary school, unless they choose it for GCSE. No practising at home, and the meals were mostly edible, though I thought the teachers could have given more consideration to choosing meals that re-heat well. I also found it annoying when we bought the ingredients then the clasd had a supply teacher who wasn't allowed to let them cook. This happened more than once.

Food Tech = How to Make Cooking Boring. Imho.

Am I the only person to have never had a single Food Tech/Home Economics cookery lesson at school? I left school in 1990 and even then I thought this had stopped in the 1950s or thereabouts.

I can't see how it is ever a school's responsibility to teach cookery. That is parenting. So, I would say to practice at home and skip the school element of it, but I am clearly out of step here. And I say this as a full time working parent of boys who are still primary age but already know how to make meatballs.

School food tech lessons are useless imo. Particularly if you have vegetarian/vegan children and the teacher refuses to acknowledge that. "Well, you can just make the meatballs like everyone else."

Most children love to help with cooking, and should be involved in food preparation from toddler age. I was furious when mine were expected to "design a sandwich" in Year 7, as though they would never have made a sandwich before.

I left school in 1990 and even then I thought this had stopped in the 1950s or thereabouts

I left school in 1990 too, and I did cooking at middle school and secondary.

Ditzy and Chocolate it is not usual in other subjects to teach a new concept at home then practice it at school, but the reverse. That is why it is odd to be told to cook the dish at home and then after learning how to do it at home practice again at school - the order is wrong if the teaching is meant to happen at school.

The only reason children would be told to learn how to do something at home then reproduce it at school would be if it is an assessment and the individual skills have been pretty taught at school - which may or may not be the case here.

If it isn't an assessment it is pretty odd to have a lesson where no new learning is planned, merely the reproduction of something learnt at home.

I agree children "should" learn to cook at home - but as in reality most don't there is a place for it at school.

Tbh most or all of what children learn at primary school could be much more efficiently taught at home by most MNers, but as a good proportion of parents wouldn't or couldn't there is a need for schools... Cooking is no different from reading in that sense...

Tbh most or all of what children learn at primary school could be much more efficiently taught at home

Which is why home-ed is becoming so popular!

This reminds me of my O level food and nutrition practical. I practised a lot. I don't think DM ever ate chicken supreme again.

The problem with relying on parents teaching their children prior to a lesson (and providing food tbh) is that it singles out children that don't have supportive home lives.

Home Ec used to be a very practical lesson which ensured that people could feed themselves relatively cheaply even if the food was less than gourmet. Unfortunately, it's one of those ones that was massively undervalued because it was a "girl's choice" and so it got dropped and replaced with the far less practical food technology which, as far as I understand, aims to teach kids about the balance of nutrition but not how to apply it in any useful way.

Obviously many parents teach kids how to cook at home (I presume most of the MN population) but for kids whose parents don't have the time, money or inclination it can lead to a cycle of food poverty that is leading to all the woes of the obesity crisis.

Reading this thread, I certainly wont be encouraging my DDs to do food tech! DD (3) has been baking and helping prepare meals since she could stand up and my ten month old is starting to join in too. They'll be able to teach the class if fruit salad is the standard of stuff that gets made!

I went to an academic school and cookery and sewing were not offered as GCSE subjects. When my friend complained that her friends back home were learning how to desogn and make fashionable clothes for a GCSE, our teacher replied 'sewing is a hobby, not a school subject'! We had craft and cookery clubs in spare time. My mum taught me loads too so I was very lucky. Cooking is a basic life skill and parents are failing their children if they don't teach the basics IMHO.

I think its a parents responsibility to teach a children what they know but what if they don't know how to cook. I see swimming, cooking, sewing and DIY (using power tools etc.) are essential life skills but probably because my parents did and taught me all of these. My DP doesn't cook or sew much but can rewire a house and do pumping as this is what his parents though were life skills. Other people refer to gardening, languages, dancing, drawing as life skills. They probably are too but I can't teach most of these as I don't have these skills.

Surely the point of school is to fill in these gaps for children. Most children of mumsnetters are fairly privileged (not necessarily financially but in terms of having parents who care about them) and I think its easy to blame parents for not teaching life skills but you can't teach what you don't know.

What's wrong with letting her practice at home?

Niloufs the problem with "practising" at home is that the practice will be before the teaching - cart before horse - unless the DD has failed to convey to the OP that the skills involved in making the dish have already been taught in school and the practice is putting the skills together for an assessment/practical test.

You can't practice what you haven't yet learnt, pre-learning at home then practising at school is odd.