Key Stage 3

Year 7

In Year 7, students are introduced to cooking and nutrition. The topics covered are nutrition and health, Food safety and the basics of cooking. Students develop skills through more a range of products concentrating on basic knife skills, using the oven, grill and hob and weighing and measuring. Dishes made in year 7 include: fruit salad, omelettes, flatbread pizzas  and scones. Students also have the opportunity to practise their cooking skills by doing practical homework. Students are assessed throughout on their independence, organisation, time management, food safety and cooking skills. Their Food and Nutrition rotation lasts for 19 weeks which is half of the academic year.

Year 8

In Year 8, students continue to learn about Nutrition and health and are introduced to current global food issues such as: sustainability, seasonality, ultra-processed foods and the influence of social media. Students continue to develop skills practised in year 7 and also start developing skills in working with meat, developing flavours and cooking pasta. Dishes made in year 8 include: enchiladas, Brik (a street food from Tunisia), baked oats and cinnamon rolls. Students again have the opportunity to develop their practical cookery skills through practical homework. Students are assessed throughout on their independence, organisation, time management, food safety and cooking skills. As in Year 7, their Food and Nutrition rotation lasts for 19 weeks which is half of the academic year. 

Year 9

In Year 9, we keep a sharp focus on nutrition, exploring the nutritional needs of specific groups of people. We also consider the cost of food and the impact of this on a family’s budget. Students learn how to evaluate their food using the senses rather than opinions, building a vocabulary in which they can express why something does or does not taste good. 

In practical cookery, students can now cook full meals with multiple steps and levels of complexity. Our dishes have a global flavour: Italian, Thai, Cuban, Jamaican and British dishes are included in the Y9 curriculum which is followed throughout the entire academic year. Each half term, students will follow either a Practical Rotation or a Theory Rotation. On a Practical Rotation, they will cook every lesson. 

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Key Stage 4

Eduqas  GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition 

Content

Food Preparation and Nutrition explores the relationship between food and nutrition; how what we choose to eat affects our bodies’ growth and development. The course has a strong emphasis on food science; how different ingredients work together, both in the cooking process and in the body.

Skills developed

• Your ability to demonstrate a wide range of cooking skills.
• Your ability to apply a high standard of hygiene.
• Increase your knowledge and understanding of food science
• Increase your knowledge and understanding of different cooking processes and techniques
• Be able to plan meals based on seasonality of produce and sustainability.
• Be able to apply knowledge of nutrition in making selections for dishes.

Assessment

Unit 1: Paper based written exam – Food Preparation and Nutrition 100 marks

Non-Examined Assessment (NEA):

NEA1 – Food Investigation 30 marks. Students, working to a specific brief, investigate an aspect of Food Science, devising a hypothesis and conducting experiments to prove or disprove this hypothesis. Students must then critically evaluate the results in a piece of controlled written assessment.

NEA2 – Practical Assessment 70 marks – Students, working to a specific brief, produce a range of dishes. Through sensory evaluation, they narrow the selection of dishes to 3 final dishes to be cooked to a three-hour practical assessment. They must prepare, cook, plate and present these dishes, dovetailing tasks as they go. They must then critically evaluate the outcome in a piece of controlled written assessment.

To find out more please get in touch with Nikki Mead on Nikki.Mead@northgosforth.co.uk

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