1. What is the curriculum rationale in Food and Nutrition?

Intent: purpose and values of Food and Nutrition

Most people engage in the act of eating every day. What we eat and how we grow, process, prepare, and consume food profoundly affect the lives and welfare of humans and other beings, yet our food systems remain a mystery to many people. It is vital that we all understand the linkages between the food we eat, the ways that culture shapes our food choices and behaviours, the relationship between food and our health, and the interconnections between our food systems and the environment.

Our intent in Food & Nutrition is to provide a rich curriculum, which illustrates the relationship between food, health and environment encouraging students to make good choices. To achieve this objective, we believe our teaching staff need to be knowledgeable, highly motivated and ambitious; this will ultimately provide a powerful food & nutrition curriculum for all students and contribute to the well-being of our young people and communities.

Our curriculum is ambitious, well considered and has been carefully sequenced to build and develop the big ideas over time. We adopt mainly a process-based approach to learning rather than content specific. What we study and how we study allows students to acquire and develop knowledge and technical understanding through active involvement in the learning process. First hand experiences are the starting point for the progressive acquisition of core knowledge, technical and investigation skills.

At the heart of our creative curriculum is the engagement with practical tasks. These tasks should specifically serve identified needs, challenge and provide an opportunity to develop a wide range of skills, therefore, we aim to deliver lessons that are REAL: (Relevant, Engaging, Active, Learning) 

• Give our students vital life skills that enable them to feed themselves and others affordably and nutritiously, now and later in life. (Relevant) 
• Encourage the development of high skills and resilience in a safe environment, allowing students to demonstrate commitment and act on feedback. (Engaging) 
• Empower students to enable them to follow a recipe and substitute ingredients and cooking methods as appropriate, demonstrating an understanding of food choices e.g. veganism, allergies and healthy eating. (Relevant and Learning) 
• Develop understanding that will allow students to become discriminating consumers of food products, enabling them to participate in society in an active and informed manner. (Active) 
• Engage with students to encourage them to understand the environmental factors which affect the inequalities in food distribution on a global scale and give them an understanding of the need to minimise ‘food waste’ starting with their own practise. (Engaging) 
• Allow students to explore a number of multicultural perspectives concerning food. Students will enhance their understanding, appreciation and acceptance of people from a variety of cultural backgrounds through the preparation of food from different countries. (Active) 
• Encourage our students to develop an awareness and acceptance of diversity within our community. (Relevant, Engaging, Active, Learning) 

Our hope is that through studying Food & Nutrition, students are provided with a context through which to explore the richness, pleasure and variety that food adds to life.  

2. What is the 'big picture' in Food and Nutrition?

Our intent is always to strive for all students to become subject experts by engaging with our ‘Big Ideas’ and the aspects within.  

The ‘big picture’ outlines how the Big Ideas and areas of knowledge of each subject fit together:

The Big Ideas of Food and Nutrition are:

• The origins of food
• The science of food
• The relationship between food and our health
• The technical know-how

We shape students understanding of the Big Ideas by enabling all students to become fluent in the following key aspects:

1. Demonstrate effective and safe cooking skills by planning, preparing and cooking using a variety of food commodities, cooking techniques and equipment 
2. Develop knowledge and understanding of the functional properties as well as the nutritional content of food and drinks  
3. Understand the relationship between diet, nutrition and health, and the effects of a poor diet and health 
4. Understand the environmental and ethical issues on food availability, production processes, and diet and health choice  
5. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of nutritional properties, sensory qualities and microbiological food safety considerations when preparing, processing, storing, cooking and serving food 
6.  Understand and explore a range of ingredients and processes from different culinary traditions, to inspire new ideas or modify existing recipes 

With each revisit to the above aspects, students will learn more and know more about each Big Idea. New knowledge will be integrated into and connected to their schemata of existing knowledge, starting with the facts, ideas and theories that constitute declarative knowledge. We then draw together these this knowledge, learning how to apply them and carry out processes (procedural knowledge) with accuracy and confidence.

There are four key areas of knowledge which are necessary to become a subject expert in Food and Nutrition:

1. Conceptual understanding: That our students build declarative knowledge (knowing that) through engagement with reading and research, e.g. forming opinions that inform choices

4. Procedural fluency: That our students build procedural knowledge (knowing how to) through carrying out technical and practical processes, e.g. selecting the appropriate processes and equipment in order to prepare food safely
5. Disciplinary knowledge: That our students build the habits of investigation, so that they can apply knowledge to different scenario’s, e.g. the exploration, testing and analysing of ideas to meet a dietary need
6. Language: that our students understand and are fluent in their knowledge of nutrition

3. What does knowledge look like in Food and Nutrition?

4. What do we teach and when?

5. What do we assess and when?

6. Where are the Food and Nutrition Knowledge Organisers?