We aim to furnish our students with an appreciation of nutrition and healthy eating. We want to instil a deep and broad understanding of food, as well as a love of cooking for its own sake. Learning how to cook healthy, tasty and economical meals is a crucial life skill everyone should be taught.
Throughout the children’s time at our school, we aim to encourage increasingly independent learning and responsibility through practical participation. We teach them a wide understanding of environmental impacts of food production and an understanding of sustainable choices such as seasonal and local foods, the importance of food provenance, as well as the scourge of food waste. We also teach about multicultural foods, including religious restrictions, and this enhances the children’s understanding of different cultures and religions in the UK, leading to a more liberal and tolerant attitude towards others.
We have a carefully constructed cookery curriculum, with detailed progression of skills through the year groups. The subject is taught in the purpose-built Lin Cooper Practical Skills Building, with each child from Year 1 upwards receiving fifteen lessons per year. By the time they leave us, the children are able to independently plan, prepare, cook, serve and clear away a three-course meal, and are able to discuss and reason their food choices.
The school is very fortunate to have the Lin Cooper Teaching Bursaries which fund our provision of this work.
Dr South's School