Food Preparation and Nutrition
Curriculum Intent
At The Eastbourne Academy, the Food Preparation and Nutrition curriculum plays a
crucial role in equipping our students with the knowledge and skills required to
create, cook, and evaluate their own nutritious dishes. With a focus on a range of
cultural backgrounds, our curriculum aims to inspire and challenge students to
develop independence and positive curiosity around the different foods available to
them.
By fostering an interest and love of food, learners acquire knowledge to make
informed decisions about food and nutrition, enabling them to feed themselves and
others affordably and nutritiously now and later in life. Through this curriculum, we
strive to produce confident, independent, and happy individuals with a passion for
learning who can apply the principles of food science, nutrition, and healthy eating to
become successful learners and members of society. By providing students with the
opportunity to create and evaluate their dishes, we are building cultural capital and
encouraging respect for diverse culinary traditions.
The department supplies the ingredients to cook with and take away containers for
all students to carry food home. This is to support busy parents in saving time and
money by buying ingredients in bulk and having everything ready for students when
they enter the lesson. Parents pay for ingredients on ParentPay.
Curriculum Implementation
We recognise that our curriculum goes beyond what happens in the classroom, and is a broad term that encompasses our wider offer.
Our Knowledge Curriculum: Ambition in the Classrooms
KS3
KS3 students have a double lesson once a week focussing on cooking, nutrition and
the science behind cooking. The students participate in a rotation with Design
Technology and IT. Students will have two seven-week double periods in food across
the year where they learn to cook a repertoire of mainly savoury meals building on a
broad range of preparation and cooking skills whilst gaining a greater understanding
of the science behind it. Students are given demonstrations on how to prepare and
cook as well as step by step recipes to promote independence. Discussions and
questioning on nutrition and functions of ingredients improve students' knowledge,
confidence and vocabulary. Students evaluate each other's cooking and presentation
skills and compete to have their dish to be put on the TEA Top Chefs board.
KS4
new challenges such as cooking meals from other cultures, making different pastries
and boning a whole chicken. In Year 10 students spend five periods a fortnight in
Food, two hours every fortnight practising their cooking skills, and four hours gaining
knowledge and vocabulary for exam preparation. Students sit written tests at the end
of each topic to check their understanding which promotes revision and review of
knowledge. Weekly homework on Seneca promotes knowledge recall. In year 10
cooking is demonstrated whilst the students are learning new complex skills but
move to independent cooking following recipes as the year progresses.
Students' GCSE portfolios are completed electronically on laptops and marked
electronically. KS4 students have an additional written folder for exam theory
preparation. In year 11 students complete two NEA tasks worth 50% of their GCSE.
The first is a food investigation where Students' understanding of the working
second is a Food preparation assessment. Students' knowledge, skills, and
understanding in relation to the planning, preparation, cooking, presentation of food,
and application of nutrition related to the chosen task. Students will prepare, cook
and present a final menu of three dishes within a single period of more than three
hours, planning in advance how this will be achieved.
Our Character Curriculum: Ambitious Individuals
Students enjoy the challenges we give them in the two hour food lessons. Students
are able to thrive creating complex dishes and work responsibly in the kitchen.
Success builds their self esteem and confidence. Students are able to transfer the
skills of teamwork, resilience, creativity, working to a timescale and independence to
other areas as well as cooking skills that help to obtain employment in the local
hospitality industry. The curriculum covers a wide range of dishes from different
countries as well as teaching about religious diets and tastings of foods from diverse
cultures.
Our Cultural Curriculum: Ambition Beyond our Classrooms
Students have a range of opportunities across the year to experience new foods and
cultures and show their cooking skills.In KS3 students can join the after school
cooking club which runs for five weeks each term focusing on different types of
cooking such as healthy eating or Christmas baking. Year 11 students can attend
weekly revision or NEA catch-up sessions. Students are encouraged to enter
competitions such as Chef of the Year, which is an individual competition where the
winners get to work with a local chef to then represent the Academy at the
Eastbourne Young Chef Finals. Year 8’s will have the opportunity to go on the Farm
to Fork trip to Plumpton College to visit the farm and work with a chef. Year 9s also
have the opportunity to participate in a Walking Food Tour in London where students
learn about the history of the local area and sample foods that different cultures have
brought to the East End of London. Year 10 Food students will be given the
opportunity to visit the local college to eat an afternoon tea in their restaurant made
by the college students and have a tour of their catering course facilities.We
additionally have visits from Chefs to give our students masterclasses to improve
their techniques.
Food Preparation and Nutrition Curriculum Information
- Curriculum Maps
Year 7 Food Preparation and Nutrition Curriculum Map Year 8 Food Preparation and Nutrition Curriculum Map Year 9 Food Preparation and Nutrition Curriculum Map Year 10 Food Preparation and Nutrition Curriculum Map Year 11 Food Preparation and Nutrition Curriculum Map - Exam Board Specification
Board Specification AQA 4547