Curriculum Aims

We believe in teaching students essential kitchen skills like chopping, baking, frying, sautéing, steaming, and food presentation. Lessons would begin with basic skills and advance to more complex techniques as students’ progress. Our curriculum allows students to explore a diverse range of international cuisines, ingredients, and traditional cooking methods from different cultures. This enhances cultural awareness and culinary diversity.

Our KS3 curriculum focusses on nutrition based on the UK’s Eatwell Guide, teaching students how to design balanced meals that meet daily nutrient requirements for different life stages.

Understanding special dietary requirements, such as gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and religious diets, and how to prepare meals that meet these needs. Exploring the relationship between diet and mental well-being, including how certain foods impact mood, cognition, and energy levels.

We value teaching students how to minimise food waste through smart shopping, proper storage, and creative use of leftovers. Lessons delivered include sourcing ingredients ethically, including understanding food miles, seasonality, organic produce, and local versus global supply chains.

We encourage students to learn more about how different types of foods (e.g., plant-based vs. animal-based) impact the environment in terms of carbon footprint, water use, and land use. This would include an introduction to regenerative agriculture and alternative protein sources like insects or lab-grown meat.

Discussions in food studies often includer social justice issues in food, such as food deserts, hunger, and poverty in the UK and globally. Students would study how access to food affects health and societal outcomes.

We also feel it is important to study the role of food in celebrations and festivals across different cultures, highlighting how food shapes identity, community, and tradition.

During KS4 in particular (although we do introduce Year 9 to this too) we look at investigating the chemical reactions involved in cooking processes (e.g., Maillard reaction, caramelization, fermentation). This teaches the "why" behind culinary techniques. Offering insights into various career paths within the food industry, such as catering, hospitality, food marketing, and product development.

Key Stage 3 Curriculum Overview

Introduction to Cooking Skills and Nutrition

Basic kitchen safety, introductory cooking skills, and understanding food groups and balanced diets.

Simple Meal Planning Students create simple, nutritious meals with an emphasis on affordable, healthy eating.

Key Stage 4

Course: Food Preparation and Nutrition

Exam Board: WJEC Eduqas

Final Assessment:

Internal Assessment

Task 1: The Food Investigation Assessment (15% of the GCSE). Students will investigate how ingredients work together.

Task 2: The Food Preparation Assessment (35% of the GCSE). This assessment will require learners to: Plan, prepare, cook and present a three course meal within three hours. Students must also produce a folio of evidence.

External Assessment

Written examination (50% of the GCSE) - 1 hour 45 minutes on topics studied in year 10 and 11.

Curriculum Overview

Food Preparation and Nutrition equips learners with the knowledge, understanding and skills required to cook and apply the principles of food science, nutrition and healthy eating. It encourages learners to cook, enables them to make informed decisions about food and nutrition and allows them to acquire knowledge in order to be able to feed themselves and others affordably and nutritiously, now and later in life. Throughout Year 10 & Year 11 pupils will gain knowledge and skills - this will involve bringing ingredients in each week to make dishes and practice skills. We will also carry out mini food science investigations to prepare students for assessment. This will culminate in two internal assessments and one external examination.