Food Preparation & Nutrition
St Ursula’s School
Food Technology Curriculum Intent
No part of our economy matters more than food. It is vital for life, and for pleasure. It shapes our sense of family, community and nation: cooking and eating together is perhaps the defining communal act. The food system also provides jobs for one in seven of us.
Much of this is made possible by a free market that performs a million daily miracles, producing, exporting, importing, processing and serving up a dazzling variety of reasonably-priced foods in an abundance unimaginable to previous generations.But this bounty has come at a cost. Intensive farming practices have caused serious damage to the environment and the food related disease is costing the NHS billions and drastically harming the lives of millions. Food security, too, is a growing concern: population growth, climate change, the global increase in meat eating are intensifying resource competition between nations.
Henry Dimbleby
We aim to deliver learning that takes account of the National Curriculum for Cooking and Nutrition, the British Nutrition Foundation Core Competencies and meet the requirements of the PSHE curriculum which includes Healthy Eating as mandatory from September 2020. At the end of key stage 3, there is the option for girls to continue and develop their studies through the GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition course.
Key Stage 4
The Year 10 curriculum aims to deliver the theoretical knowledge to prepare students for the written examination and non examined assessment (NEA) in year 11. There are four units across Year 10:
Unit1 – Protein and protein foods (meat, fish, eggs, soya, tofu, beans, nuts, seeds milk, cheese and yoghurt)
Unit 2 – Fats (butter, oil, margarine)
Unit 3 – Carbohydrates ( bread, cereals, flour, oats, rice, potatoes, pasta, sugar and syrup)
Unit 4 – Vitamin and minerals ( fruit and vegetables (fresh, frozen, dried, canned and juiced)
In Year 11 students complete two NEAs. These include a Food Science Investigation whereby over a maximum of 10 hours, students research, carry out food science investigations and analyse their results resulting in a 2,000 report which is marked and sent to the exam board. In addition students complete a food preparation task. In this NEA, over 20 hours students research, plan and prepare three dishes that can be produced in a 3 hour practical exam. This assignment is then completed with cost, nutritional and sensory analysis of the dishes.
Students then also sit a written examination assessing:
Nutrition and Health
Food science
Food safety
Food choice
Food provenance
Links to curriculum maps:
Links to useful sites for KS4 students, parents and members of the public
DFE Food Preparation and Nutrition GCSE subject content
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/food/gcse/food-preparation-and-nutrition-8585
https://www.ifst.org/lovefoodlovescience
https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/
https://www.senecalearning.com/
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/food
Every kid in every school no matter their background, deserves to learn the basics about food- where it comes from, how to cook it and how it affects their bodies
Jamie Oliver
Food is our common ground, a universal experience
James Beard
We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than we are
Adelle Davis
Cooking is the ultimate giving
Jamie Oliver