Schools

Girls threading fruit kebabs landscapeThe Food Teacher™ is incredibly passionate about the impact of nutrition education for all individuals especially growing children and families. 

The Food Teacher™ team, which includes several qualified and experienced teachers, work with schools in various ways depending on staff and pupil needs, funding and priority. Many schools utilise grants and external support to work with The Food Teacher.

Young Chef Awards

The Young Chef Awards are an innovative and exciting curriculum based programme of awards for schools, children and families. These awards began with ‘The Fleetwood Young Chef of the Year Award’ (2017), which has received positive feedback from stakeholders, teachers, parents and pupils.

Each award contains 5/6 stand-alone lessons that can be delivered in the classroom during an enrichment week, weekly or across a school year. Once signed up schools and teachers get access to the web-based content which includes a scheme of work, resource planner, weekly lesson plans, teaching videos delivered by chefs and presentations. Schools also receive printed material, which depending on the award can include copies of our award-winning books ‘No Kitchen Cookery for Primary Schools’ and ‘Now We’re Cooking! Delivering the National Curriculum through Food’, printed pupil journals/stickers and certificates/medals.

Each award provides the tools teachers require to cover the National Curriculum for ‘Cooking and Nutrition’ and can also help to build a school culture and ethos of healthy eating, which is now part of the Oftsed Inspection Framework (2022).

3 awards targeted at different Year groups:

The awards are also supported by the College of Medicine and Integrated Health and accredited by the Nutritional Therapy Education Commission (2019-2024).

Please take a look at our Impact ReportsLimerick Pilot 2019 and UK and Ireland 2019/2020.

Supporting Schools & Nurseries

The team has extensive experience working with both Primary and Secondary schools offering advisory support, developing curriculum content, schemes of work, assessment, policy development, mentoring staff and model and team teaching. Measuring the impact of the support is an inclusive aspect of the work. Examples of support include menu development for Kids Inc Nurseries, development and delivery of the Ridgeway Academy (Secondary School) Realise, Aspire, Achieve programme and delivery of a food and nutrition workshop with Action4Youth for their National Citizen Service programme.

The team also help facilitate ‘Pupil Voice’ groups, plan themed school food, nutrition and wellbeing days or workshops for children and parents, set up school farmers markets and can help establish local community partnerships, e.g. with sports professionals, farmers and allotments.

Restaurants & Corporates

The team work with restaurants and corporates developing links with schools and communities, supporting corporate social responsibility and creating food and nutrition themed curriculum linked content. Examples have included linking The Restaurant Group plc with our Young Chef schools, developing Christmas recipe and craft lesson plans for Discovery Education Espresso and creating a school curriculum programme for itsu.

Award-winning Author

In 2015 Katharine (The Food Teacher™ Director) published the award-winning ‘No Kitchen Cookery for Primary Schools’ which was written for schools with limited or no kitchen access to deliver an aspect of the Cooking and Nutrition National Curriculum for Key Stage 1 and 2 within classrooms.  The book aims to give teachers an outline for cookery lessons with objectives, outcomes and assessment opportunities clearly identified and provides straightforward easy to follow recipes.  The book was a UK finalist in the Professional category at the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (2016).  A companion book ‘Heat-Free and Healthy’ is also available.

Katharine has also co-authored the award-winning ‘Now we’re cooking’ with colleague Marie Reynolds and Tim Baker (Head Teacher at Charlton Manor Primary School). The book provides teachers with exemplary lessons which have proved engaging and motivational for pupils. They are designed to serve as a starting point to transforming your curriculum delivery. The book won a ‘Best in the World’ Special Award at the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (2018) and includes a foreword from ‘Jamie Oliver’, MBE.

University

An online course for university students

The Food Teacher™ team also offer a programme focused on helping 6th form students understand the transition from school life to University.  This looks at some of the challenges they may face, and how nutrition can help them deal with the adjustments in lifestyle.  An online course ‘Cooking Healthily at University‘ to educate and inspire students to prepare nourishing meals is also available for download.

The Food Teacherclinic can provide consultations and will work with individual children and their families through schools to improve nutrition to reduce obesity risk, improve concentration, attendance (boosting immunity) and behaviour.

Please contact The Food Teacher™ to discuss your needs further.