Cooking Class with Allergies

[MidniteScribbler]

If you had a child who had allergies to egg, wheat, shellfish, any nut product, milk, and sesame, and they also have a vegetarian diet, would you sign them up for a cooking elective at their school? They would like to do cooking, but there are also 39 other activities on offer at the same time by the school. Would you let them sign up for cooking?

The school I work at has clubs that are run by staff who volunteer their time out of school hours. I run the cooking club. If I was presented with this situation and told I had to accept this many needs, I would refuse to run the club.

Who are you in this scenario @MidniteScribbler ?

Not if the planned class couldn't take place without reasonable adjustment. If I was the teacher I Would sit down with parent go through the menus ask them to supply alternative ingredients but highlight to them that the allergy ingredients may come into contact with the child. Depending of the severity of the allergy and the types of food being cooked this may or not work.

I have dyslexia which impacts heavily on my ability to undertake mental maths and I wouldn't join a maths club because the disability would impact excessively on my capacity to undertake the tasks, some common sense is needed.

The school have a duty under the Equality Act to make the option accessible to everyone, or nobody.

If I were the parent, I would be noting the fact that there was the distinct possibility the class might not take place and the impact that might have on other children. As the parent, I would want to find a compromise, because being able to cook is so important.

If I were the school, I would want to talk further with the parents to see what might, and might not, be possible and consider running some sessions that the child can access, because there must be something that everyone can eat and enjoy together.

If my friend who is coeliac comes round for dinner, we all eat, and very much enjoy, a meal with no gluten. It's not that hard to do.

I'm not sure what I would do, but there are several chefs with severe food allergies, who have gone through culinary school.

The Equalities Act requires reasonable adjustments to be made, not any adjustment .

If my friend who is coeliac comes round for dinner, we all eat, and very much enjoy, a meal with no gluten. It's not that hard to do.

I can not believe you are conflating cooking occasional GF meals with this situation.

How good are you at cooking something vegetarian, without egg, wheat, shellfish, any nuts or nut products, milk and sesame. Not very good I imagine....

No. Just no. And fyi if you're kid doesn't have dairy they're vegan

My DDs have coeliac disease and manage their food tech classes at school fairly well. They wash all the utensils prior to starting cooking, just to minimise the risk of cross contamination as far as possible; they take their own ingredients (well all the children do); they cook on a separate work bench and use a separate oven.

But that is just one thing to think about - and it is up to me, as their mother, to think about the correct ingredients to cook that week's recipe. We always practice the week before at home as well.

If I were the parent of this child, I wouldn't put their name down for a cookery class for two reasons - firstly, because of the potential for issues arising from airborne particles, but secondly, because of the limitations this would put on the teacher and the other children in the class, which simply don't seem fair to me.

In this situation I would meet with the teacher to discuss, but I would asssume that there wouldn’t be sufficient reasonable adjustments the teachers could make to make the classes safe.

My ds coeliac and anaphylactic to shellfood does BTEC cooking at school, he does his in another area and I send all pans / dishes in so he doesn't use any of the school equipment.

DS is ana to dairy, egg, banana and nuts and yes I absolutely would support him doing a cooking class.

It just needs to be well managed and good communication between parent, teacher and child.

That was supposed to say ‘and shell fish)’

Fluffy - you misunderstand me. What I'm saying is that it should be possible to run some of the sessions for everyone cooking dishes that will suit the child with the allergies. What I'm also saying is that food complying with the listed restrictions can also be eaten by people who do not have to live with those restrictions.

How good are you at cooking something vegetarian, without egg, wheat, shellfish, any nuts or nut products, milk and sesame. Not very good I imagine.... Your imagination does you an injustice.

I've had to teach a bit of food in the past and my heart would have sunk if that kid was in my class! We have students who have severe allergies and have their own set of equipment that is never used by anyone else. I'd ring the parents and try and negotiate for them to do something else. Ultimately though if they want to do it you need to adapt everything!

And I say that as a parent with a severe allergy

*of a child

I'd consult the child's dietitian. That is a very restricted diet.

No.

Really Hillarious? Cause I had to produce 3 gf, nut free vegan meals last weekend and it was a total pain in the arse to get any more exciting than baked potato w beans. Im coeliac so used to cooking without gluten and ds1 used to be allergic to dairy and nuts so I've got experience of that too but it was a right chuff.

No, and I too have a child with allergies.

A special allergy-awareness session could be great, and making kids aware of what hides in their food would be useful, but a whole course around a child is too much to ask for a state school.

I try to cook 3 gluten free, nut free and dairy free meals every week, it's not so hard. Ds and I can't eat wheat and dairy and dh can't eat nuts.

Ds cooks every week at school, we've been lucky in that his food tech teacher is keen to help him learn to cook for his food restrictions. He's fine touching foods though and anaphylaxis isn't an issue.

Meant to say I try to cook 3 gluten free, nut free and dairy free and meat free meals

It's not that hard when you have to but it's not cheap.
Look at the OP's list, it does take some research to come up with something suitable - bearing in mind another child or 2 in the class might have other allergies too. It's a school club, not a luxury high dining class.

Ds1's severe multiple food allergies were coped with by him working at a separate work station and using utensils that had been through the dishwasher twice, (rather than dunked in lukewarm water for a nanosecond by a year 7 in the previous class which is the case for all the other utensils).

However DS did not have airborne allergies.

I made sure everything he made was somethimg he could eat. When it eas not possible to adapt a dish I thought up something else for him to make, and emailed it to the teacher to check it was ok, instead of demanding that the teacher provide an alternative recipe for him according to the equalities act blah blah.

I advised DS not to do GCSE food tech as it is ALL about cooking different versions of one dish, Eg you pick muffins then you have to make: fat free muffins, sugar free muffins, wholemeal muffins, fruit muffins, and so on into infinity until you never want to see another muffin again till your dying day. And there just aren't enough variations of anything when you are already taking food allergies into account.