The Year 3 and 4 members of the Junior Cooking Club at St Margaret's School in Exeter are having such fun learning through food that older girls from the senior school are choosing to come and help.  The girls meet for 40 minutes during lunchtime, once a week.  They bring their own little recipe books and ingredients and cook the food, which they then taste.

Commenting on the interaction between the Senior school and Junior(Prep), Elaine Clark, Head of Home Economics remarked  “It is great for the little ones to interact with the older girls and it also means we can cook more adventurous things.  I find the club encourages them to cook at home, which is tremendous. It is just such fun to learn through the medium of food. They learn about maths by measuring, geography because we talk about where the food comes from, and we discuss fair trade and ethical issues, too. The little ones just love cooking. One girl said to me it was the highlight of her week”

Years 5 and 6 and the Upper Sixth recently came into school on a Saturday to have a day long cookery club, which they called Food Fun Day.  It is something they hope to repeat next year.  They spent the day cooking various meals and comparing notes on the source of the ingredients used and how cost and eco-efficient they were. Some of the ingredients used were grown on site.

The school is fortunate enough to have its own garden, in which pupils grow herbs and vegetables.  The pupils have recently harvested and devoured some peas and green beans.  The girls follow a rota to ensure the garden is nurtured and that slugs and other pests are discouraged. 

St Margaret's is keen to encourage cookery amongst its pupils.  In 2009 two pupils – Suzy Adams and Maya Greenaway, both 14 – made it to the regional final of Junior Masterchef..  Another recent highlight was when the Senior school performed a Murder Mystery evening for parents.  Halfway through the play the Home Economics students served a three-course meal, which they had created, dressed as waitresses from the period.

This innate enthusiasm for cookery is down to the teaching staff and to the enthusiastic ethos of the school, which encourages healthy eating.  School meals are created using ingredients which are predominantly locally sourced.  Locally produced bangers and mash is an all time favourite.

For more inspiring ideas about how to integrate British food into the Curriculum, see the Love British Food resource guide Putting the Ooo! back into food [click here]