Engaging the unengaged with Leiths’ brand new cooking curriculum

Kickstarting a love affair with cooking – isn’t that what food teaching should be all about?

There’s arguably no other life skill that will serve children better throughout their lives, and it is an incredibly rewarding experience.

This is a hugely important part of children’s education and certainly not one to be sidelined, given its popularity and far-reaching impact in the classroom.

Cooking is engaging and sensory; it’s the ultimate analogue activity, one that helps pupils stay focused and participate more in class.

It encourages them to develop a positive relationship with food: children are more likely to eat what they make. In fact, those engaged in tactile experiences such as handling foods and preparing meals have less food neophobia (food fear) and greater acceptance of eating a variety of dishes.

As children love to cook, providing them with engaging cookery lessons is a great way to get them to love school and develop an appetite for learning in general. It encourages conversation, opens up new experiences, and affords learners a sense of achievement. 

Given the chance to cook, children quickly become quite skilled, even if they are completely inexperienced in the kitchen at the outset. They also enjoy cooking so much that they will beg to do it again and again!

Hands-on cooking lessons where children prepare their own meals really grab pupils’ attention, and they are highly motivational because children are invested in them.

Cooking can also be therapeutic for children, boosting their wellbeing by soothing stress, curbing negative thinking, and focusing the mind on something enjoyable. 

In short, cooking is the gift that keeps on giving!

Now you’re cooking!

Cooking is a win-win, but finding exciting, age-appropriate lessons with great resources is a challenge.

This is where Leiths Academy makes life easy for us.   

Its brand new materials are all practical and interactive, with the aim of providing primary children with a complete entry-level food education experience.

They are mapped to the national curriculum, core competencies around food, and the framework of knowledge and skills for food teaching, and feature simple but delicious recipes that can be used in multiple ways.

Leiths’ innovative cookery curriculum has been designed specifically for KS1 and KS2 and comes with an impressive package of 32 lesson plans and recipes, along with superb step-by-step class instruction videos.

The latter, delivered by an engaging and energetic culinary connoisseur, Chef AJ, give children an exceptional learning experience and personal mentorship. They will help children emulate a real chef and practise mise en place.

“Leiths’ innovative cookery curriculum has been designed specifically for KS1 and KS2 and comes with an impressive package of 32 lesson plans and recipes.”

Importantly, the videos take all the stress away from teachers, even those without any cooking skills! 

The recipes are all affordable (most can be made for around £1 per pupil per session), accessible, and inclusive. Balancing health with practicality, they include dishes like pea, basil, and tomato bruschetta; banana and kiwi pancakes; and vegetable laksa. Supplementary recipes are also provided.

The Leiths curriculum understands that most primary schools aren’t set up with teaching kitchens or culinary rooms, so their resources have been designed for schools to run practical sessions in classrooms of all shapes and sizes using portable equipment.

A recipe for success

Let’s look at the details:

• Each key stage includes a set of classroom-based lesson plans with cross-curricular links and an accompanying pupil worksheet for independent learning.
• Teaching notes signpost to related recipe and skills videos.
• Each lesson plan is linked to a practical recipe with teacher set-up notes, details of the equipment required, and scalable shopping lists.
• Working in pairs, pupils get to create tasty, wholesome food to enjoy together at school or to take home to share.
• While many recipes focus on heat-free cooking, the curriculum also includes some options that make use of a plug-in induction hob and an oven, in line with the guidance that KS2 pupils learn how to cook safely with heat.
• All recipes have been designed with a handful of simple ingredients and a focus on savoury snacks and meals and food to share sociably with friends.
• The recipes are designed to introduce pupils to a wide range of ingredients and flavours and a broad range of cooking skills and techniques.
• Ingredients cost less than £1 per pupil per session, and the recipes use simple, everyday cooking equipment that can be easily packed away and stored at school in between lessons.
• Additional recipes include Greek salad pittas, panzanella salad, and lime cheesecake pots.

The lessons are created within a framework that ensures children are set up for success, but perfection is not expected.

Experimentation, trial and error, and mistake-making are seen collectively as a necessary part of cooking, enabling children to reflect and cook on their own terms. This motivates pupils to try out their own ideas and gain confidence.

Make cooking count

Never before have our food choices been so important for our health and wellbeing.

In a world where convenience, technology, and delivery apps dominate, Leiths’ primary resources are a fabulous reminder of the importance and relevance of first-hand home cooking. They will teach children how to rustle up a meal from fresh ingredients and have autonomy over their diet.

Cooking plays an important role in supporting teaching and learning and supports all areas of the curriculum.

Let Leiths get you started, and you can inspire a gastronomy education in even the most reluctant learners and remove the barriers to cooking in school.

But don’t just take our word for it – you can get your FREE seven-day trial now to test four recipes with lesson plans, plus accompanying pupil resources and videos.