Catering Curriculum Statement

Intent

At North Star 240°, we believe that food is a basic requirement of life and should be shared and enjoyed.  We believe that all students should have the opportunity to learn to cook healthy, nutritious food from scratch.  We want all students to have had the opportunity to develop the skills to be able to safely cook, (on a budget), tasty, healthy, socially responsible meals at home by the time they leave us. We want students to take pleasure from food and what it can add to life.

 We develop skills for independent living, employment, and a lifelong love of food through:

• Ensuring students can follow a range of different recipes;
• Planning recipes that challenge and develop understanding of tastes and textures;
• Understanding the importance of healthy and balanced diet. To support healthy living, we use The Eatwell Guide as the cornerstone provide a visual guide for students to make independent healthy choices with ingredients and portion size;
• Students being able to cook safely and responsibly, demonstrating competence with food hygiene and safety. To do this we integrate food hygiene and safety practices during all practical lessons to help students learn to apply them instinctively at school and at home;
• Developing independent living. We achieve this through activities such as planning meals with a budget, buying ingredients in person or online, handling money, cooking and storing food;
• Broadening students’ food experience through exploring a range of ingredients and cooking styles from different culinary cultures;
• Engendering a love and passion for cooking, through using variety of indigents and skills they would not always get to do at home;

Implementation

• Teaching in catering is designed to meet the individual needs of the students. Therefore, we create new or modify existing recipes for specific students.
• We use recipes with images and pictures. Recipes are clear and easy to follow, building step by step. Repetition and regular practice are used to embed learning.
• Teachers explain, model/demonstrate and repeat skills. Students are asked to repeat and demonstrate.
• Progression is made through increasing recipe complexity over time.
• Catering is taught through a 1:3 ensuring students get the right level of supervision guidance and support. This also ensures students can cook safely and responsibly.
• KS4 Students achieve an accredited qualification in food to enable them to reach their full potential, this done through vocational based qualifications.
• All students in KS3 have opportunities to develop cooking skills through KS3 enrichment activities, School Council charity events, regular enrichment intervention lessons.
• Catering makes cross curricular links, in particular Science (healthy living)-expand
• We interweave, the social and cultural stands of SMSC into the planning and delivery of catering.
• Catering implements cultural capital through themed trips such as visit to supermarkets, farms, leisure centres, cafes, restaurants and highlight different opportunities to follow careers in food.
• Students are assessed through; formative discussions about their cooking; images of their practical skills in action and completed dishes; progress is tracked against learning targets as defined in BTEC Home Cooking Skills.

Impact

• Students will have a passion for cooking healthy foods and be able to understand and follow balanced diet.
• Students will have able to navigate themselves around a kitchen and independently cook a range of healthy recipes from around the world.
• Students will demonstrate their knowledge and under through portfolio-based evidence, internally assessed, through robust IV procedures.
• Students will have the knowledge skills and understanding to transition onto a post 16 cooking and catering qualification with the overall impact of following a career in hospitality and catering.