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Aprons at the ready as children’s cooking clubs get cracking
More than 10,000 children will get the chance to learn to cook in after-school clubs this term thanks to a new partnership between the Children’s Food Trust and The Tesco Eat Happy Project.
The £5m project is giving more than 2,400 schools the chance to join Let’s Get Cooking sessions after school so they can go above and beyond what they learn about cooking in the curriculum. This term they’ll be learning to cook dishes like Parsnip and Apple Soup, Jerk Chicken and Morroccan Vegetable Stew with Couscous. The Children’s Food Trust’s Let’s Get Cooking programme gives children the chance to learn to cook a huge variety of dishes from healthy favourites like salads, omelettes and soups to world cuisine like curries, stir fries and chilli. The clubs have a real and lasting impact on children’s relationship with their food – research shows that almost all children who take part cook again at home, and more than half say they eat more healthily since learning to cook at a club. As well as keeping more than 1,200 existing clubs in England going, the charity’s partnership with Tesco has already created more than 1,100 new clubs in England and will see hundreds more launching in Scotland in 2016. Together, this means up to 72,000 more children will get to benefit from learning how to cook. Linda Cregan, Chief Executive Officer of the Children’s Food Trust, said: “If we want children in the UK to eat better, we have to give them the skills they need to cook and these clubs are making that happen.
“This is a new era for this work and it’s so exciting to have Tesco’s support to help our incredible network of volunteers inspire even more children to take their first steps in the kitchen. Every child should get the chance to roll up their sleeves, get their apron on and make something delicious from scratch – and if they don’t get that chance at home, our clubs are providing that connection.”
Originally established seven years ago with £20m of investment from the Big Lottery Fund, The Children’s Food Trust’s Let’s Get Cooking programme established a network of 3,000 successful primary and special school clubs in England and has so far helped almost 2 million children and parents improve their cooking skills.
www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk
College invests to inspire pupils
A technology college in Birmingham has invested £350,000 to create a flagship building in the heart of its campus to both create additional spaces and inspire pupils to achieve educational excellence.
Selly Park Technology College has been working in partnership with Bournville Architects to construct a 340m², two-storey building comprising three classrooms, two intervention rooms and new dining facility.
The new complex has been designed to complement the existing building stock while remaining flexible to shifts in long-term needs such as fluctuations in pupil numbers. This flagship is also raising accommodation standards by setting the benchmark for future developments and enhancing perceptions of the college.
An excellent learning environment has been created with high natural daylight and ventilation levels as well as plenty of pupil privacy. “Secondary schools need to invest in educational facilities which meet the ever- changing curriculum and developments in technology so they attract pupils as well as convince parents their child is making the right choice,” says Michelle Magrs, Head Teacher at Selly Park Technology College.
“The new facility needed to provide a high quality, attractive, non-institutional building, which offered value for money. What was achieved surpassed our – both governors and the
teaching team’s - expectations.
“Bournville Architects took our vision to create a sustainable building which met a range of environmental requirements and designed a facility where people want to learn,” says Michelle.
Although the initial brief was to create a flagship building, there was also a need to safeguard the school for future generations as Ian Tipton, director at Bournville Architects, explains: “Our challenge was to design a building within the aesthetics of the existing architecture but which also stood out as the flagship building. “By re-distributing and re-configuring space which was no longer fit for purpose, Selly Park now has a facility which supports its vision of providing equality of opportunity to all its students in an innovative, flexible and high quality educational environment.
“Selly Park proves that schools can achieve remarkable buildings on small budgets which will help them stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” says Ian.
The school – which admits pupils aged from 11 to 16 – is situated on a 1.56 hectares site which originally opened in 1911. Future plans for the school include the removal of two existing temporary classrooms as well as extending its limited green space.
www.sellyprk.bham.sch.uk Rhug Estate educates little farmers on where good food comes from
Rhug Estate, the renowned organic farm owned and run by Lord Newborough, is engaging young people in the field-to-fork journey with a series of workshops. Hosted on the farm in Denbighshire, Wales, the workshops are designed to educate younger children and students on where their food comes from and how it is made. Available now, the ‘Little Farmers’ series involves a farm tour led by Rhug Estate farm manager Gareth Jones, where children aged 4 – 11 visit free-range sheep, cows, bison, chickens, geese and turkeys in their natural habitat and learn about how they are bred on an organic farm. The children make their own beef burgers with the butcher and have a tasting session of cooked organic burgers, freshly prepared by the Bison Grill chef. The Little Farmers field-to- fork experience helps children discover where their food comes from and what happens in the countryside surrounding them, encouraging positive change and environmental awareness for the next generation.
October 2015
Lord Newborough, owner of Rhug Estate said: “The benefits of field-to-fork education are second to none as it helps children and students make better links between the meals they eat, food production, cooking and healthy eating – which is a crucial learning in life. We have hosted a number of school and college groups here at Rhug in the past few years and the feedback has been brilliant, so we look forward to welcoming more eager learners throughout 2015 and 2016.”
The Rhug Estate Little Farmers and student tours are available to book now and last approximately half a day.
Rhug Estate do not charge for the sessions but do ask for a small donation which goes directly to the Welsh Air Ambulance Service. Schools and colleges can get in touch with Gwen Williams at Rhug Estate on 01490 413 000 to book or find out more information.
www.rhug.co.uk www.education-today.co.uk 5
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