To think there must be a cheaper way of teaching Home Ec

[Ceramicpumpkin281]

On today's list:

A clove of garlic
Pinch of paprika
Table spoon of olive oil
1 chicken breast

This is an area where lots of families are struggling, Couldn't the school have store cupboard basics for the class to share that we all pay an annual amount towards. I know people will say these are the types of things families will already have at home but a lot won't!

The food also comes back inedible after kicking around all day so it's not proving a meal for the family either.

When I was at school we had to take everything for what we cooked and we had a recipe to follow and that was it no question

My friends daughter has to do this at one local secondary and then another one have a subscription amount where the stuff is purchased by the school but she's only in year 7 apparently if you do food tech in year 10/11/12/13 as an option the recipes are more complex and not everyone does the same every week and so you have to take your own.

We had to bring in ingredients but we could decide what we made within the brief.

So once we had to make a starter and my friend took in a packet of powdered just add boiling water and simmer french onion soup!

I picked stuff out of a microwave cook book most weeks 😂

So you expect volunteers to make up a float out of their own pocket to cover the costs for those parents that aren't willing or able to pay for ingredients?

Not individual volunteers, no. But it's very common for PTAs to contribute towards the cost of trips, either to hold the price down for everyone, or to cover those who can't/won't pay. The same could apply to the cookery ingredients.

And where do you think PTA money comes from? Parent contributions!!!!!

ampantIvy · Today 11:26
“Not really. I did Food and Nutrition O Level in 1971 and Home Economics (which was more than just cookery) in 1973”
i think it was called Cookery in 1968 when I started secondary, then “Domski” as we used to call in early 70’s. Only girls allowed!
I couldn’t do it for o level as I did music and we weren’t allowed to do more than one “ non academic” subject!!!!
Our lessons were very useful back then, we learned a lot about using different alerts of pastries, cuts of meat, made jam etc. My boys in the 90’s just seemed to make variations of small cakes and pizza.
Not that I ever saw any of it. It was all eaten on the way home.

That was a failed attempt at trying to reply to anpantIvy!

DS has to take stuff in, but school provides salt, pepper and spices. He had FFT first thing in the morning. I have never
DD's school charges £5/term and provides everything.

I have never heard of it not happening. Myself , siblings , my kids , all my family kids , asked OH all his kids.

I teach food and have done it both ways. The school providing ingredients is preferable I think and definitely easier for parents and carers. The problem is that you can't insist students pay so you risk being out of pocket, it's also so much work for a technician to get everything ready for hundreds of students.

No it’s against school policy to have petty cash to pay staff back. I also only have £280 left in my budget until April so I wouldn’t be able to stretch it far enough anyway and I have to use that money to cover my printing costs and stationary amongst other things.