KS3

Our overarching key aim in Food and Nutrition is to inspire our students to develop a love of cooking whilst developing key skills needed within the kitchen. By the end of the key stage students will have the confidence and competence to cook a repertoire of mostly savoury dishes for themselves and their families.  Students are encouraged to adapt recipes to their own personal preference so that students are more like to enjoy the food that they produce.

Cooking is a valuable life skill, and we want to equip our students with the skills needed to tackle most recipes.  Students will build upon practical skills through the key stage, as well as learning about the principals of food and nutrition; if students wish to pursue Food and Nutrition at GCSE, they will have developed the practical skills and theoretical knowledge, which will give them a great base for the course.

Students learn about the importance of hygiene and kitchen safety, and these are implemented during each practical lesson.  Students also learn about healthy eating guidelines and how these effect our lives. 

We have a dedicated food room set up with 12 kitchen stations. Year 7 & 8 have 2 lessons a fortnight, and Year 9’s 3 hours a fortnight.

KS4

GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition

The course aims to develop knowledge, skills and understanding in food preparation and nutrition, and also to encourage and develop the capability to design, prepare and make quality products using a range of food ingredients.

The course will involve practical work and problem solving using raw ingredients and standard components. It will cover investigating the functions of ingredients including the chemical reactions that occur when combining a range of ingredients. Practical skills will be developed through cooking a range of high skill dishes and new techniques in preparation for the NEA in Year 11.

How is the GCSE Assessed?

Final Examination:  50% of total marks

(100 marks)

Students will be entered for a 1 hour 45 minutes hour written paper. The examination will test their knowledge and understanding of the subject using multiple choice, short and long answer style questions.

NEA (Non-Examined Assessment) 50% of total marks.

The non-examined assessment will consist of two tasks.

Task 1 – worth 15% - is an investigation and is completed over 10 hours. 

Task 2 - worth 35% - is a practical, preparation assessment over 20 hours, during which time the pupil will be expected to prepare and make a three-course meal of their choice.

For further information, please use the link below to the AQA Food Preparation and Nutrition (9-1) GCSE specification.

https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/food/gcse