News
18 year olds have "cooking age" of just 12 years old
A
s school leavers prepare to look after themselves at University for the first time from next week, new research from Sainsbury’s reveals that 17 and 18 year-olds have a Cooking Age of just 12 years old. The first of its kind classification, similar to the national Reading Age, has been developed in collaboration with the British Nutritional Foundation. Based on extensive research amongst 3,000 people aged 14 to 50, a person’s Cooking Age is a benchmarks their food knowledge and cooking skills against the National Curriculum.
The research reveals that as a nation, our Cooking Age is falling short of our real age, and we are reaching it much later than we should. Just this week, practical cooking became a compulsory part of the National Curriculum for children up to the age of Year 9 for the first time in England – the government’s biggest ever nationwide push to get kids cooking and eating well.
Other key findings include • 63% of 19 to 24 year olds are unable to rustle up simple, balanced dishes such as a shepherd's pie.
• 44% of 17 to 18 year olds admit they are unable to make time saving, nutritious dishes like an omelette from scratch. Sainsbury’s is releasing the findings as it sets out plans to inspire a new generation of children to eat well through its Active Kids scheme, which is 10 years old next year. With 51,000 nurseries, primary schools, secondary schools registered, Sainsbury’s will help teachers deliver these new lessons at classroom level to help boost the national Cooking Age through new curriculum-linked resources and an ambitious new nationwide schools competition.
Fronted by Ashley Banjo, Diversity founder and Britain’s Got Talent Winner, Active Kids Superstar Cooks will excite children aged 5-16 about preparing and cooking great tasting food.
Active Kids Superstar Cooks challenges pupils to cook the ultimate, great tasting, healthy meal for the chance to win £10,000 of new kitchen kit for their school plus an exclusive dance class with Ashley Banjo. It has been created for children of all ages and abilities, with entries in two age categories 5 to 11 and 11 to 16 year olds. One winning school will be selected in each of the two age groups.
uwww.activekids.sainsburys-live-well-for-less.co.uk/superstar-cooks
Contact Group and Sixth Domain team up for Reward System
C
ontact Group, providers of best in class communication and data services, has been appointed UK Reseller of Reward System from Sixth Domain, an online points-based behaviour tracking and reward system that ensures behaviour policy focuses on positivity. The brainchild of John Roberts, former assistant head and director of Sixth Domain, the new solution allows teachers to track events - good news, bad news, sanctions, reports, comments - and to monitor and analyse the behaviour of individual students, classes, forms and houses. Improvement can be monitored on a week-by-week basis and news and follow up information saved and referred to other teachers. Senior Leadership Teams can print off reports and analyse whole school and departmental behaviour, track homework and reports and communicate with parents.
Designed to integrate with a school’s Management Information System (MIS) and significantly reduce administration, Reward System employs the very latest SSL encryption technology to protect school data. “Reward System has been particularly well received by schools,” said Stephen Clarke, Managing Director, Contact Group. “Little Lever School in Bolton commented that it enables pastoral leaders to monitor very effectively students' successes and areas for development. Other schools reported a serious reduction in incidents of racism and bullying as a result of more rigorous reporting.
“As a provider of best in class communication and data services to the public sector, we are always looking for new products to enhance our existing portfolio. We currently offer a range of solutions to cover parental communication, school attendance, looked after children, anti-bullying systems, registration apps, term time holiday tracking, mentoring and personalised apps. Sixth Domain’s behaviour tracking and reward system sits perfectly with our product line.”
uwww.the-contactgroup.com/products/reward-system/
Surrey County Council extends education partnership with Babcock B
abcock International Group has secured a further four-year extension to its contract with Surrey County Council to deliver school improvement and support services across the county’s c. 400 schools.
This latest extension for the Education Joint Venture, Babcock 4S, will see it build upon its successful track record of delivery over the last ten years, with a third term running from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2019.
Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Schools and Learning Linda Kemeny said: “We want to ensure we meet and exceed the excellent standards currently being set in our high-quality schools. This new contract underlines our commitment to achieving that despite growing demand for places putting a huge strain on our budgets together with the rising number of older people needing social care. It will help ensure we continue to have some of the best state schools in the country and Surrey's children get the best possible start in life."
Amanda Fisher, Director of Education Services at Babcock said “Our ground-breaking
October 2014
partnership has delivered a sustainable approach to education and improved life chances for children and young people. By 2013, Surrey had risen to 15th in the national results for 5 A*-C GCSEs (including English and maths), with 68% of students gaining this level of attainment.” The joint venture has also delivered significant savings for the council to date of £12.7m, achieved through innovative service delivery.” Extending the contract for another four years means that Babcock 4S will continue to deliver the ‘Every school a Good school project’ by 2017, the aim being that every school in Surrey is rated by Ofsted as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’. The partnership aims to continue to make remarkable progress over the duration of the extension, a key objective being for Surrey schools to be ranked in the Top Ten nationally at Key Stage 4 (GCSE) by 2019.
As well as significantly improving education outcomes for children and young people, the partnership is also making a positive difference in the wider community. Through the joint venture the Surrey Educational Trust was established,
designed to provide funding opportunities for innovative educational projects and schemes that are benefiting children, young people and learners in Surrey. £1m has been invested into the fund since 2004, with 26 projects awarded grants of up to £25,000, including a radio education initiative, safeguarding theatre production for secondary schools and in conjunction with the charity SATRO, a range of events and programmes that inspires and enthuses young people about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in Surrey schools and colleges.
www.education-today.co.uk 5
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