The Food and Nutrition Curriculum at Sheffield Springs matches and exceeds the breadth of the National Curriculum equipping students with the knowledge to understand the principles of nutrition and health whilst becoming competent in cooking a repertoire of dishes so they can feed themselves and others. It enables students to understand their own culture and that of others, developing transferable skills providing a range of employability opportunities. Studying Food and Nutrition instils a love of cooking: a crucial life skill to ensure the health and wellbeing of individuals and society as well as being able to feed themselves and others affordably and well, now and later in life.
Food and Nutrition in Y7 begins with the basic knowledge of hygiene, safety and knife skills leading students to demonstrate these abilities to make simple products for themselves. Students' progress onto developing their knowledge of heat transfer and cooking methods which is put into practice through the correct use of the whole cooker making products building on term 1 as well as an introduction to healthy eating and 5 a day. Students' knowledge is then expanded further to learn about the main food groups and nutrients on the eat well guide as well as increasing complexity to the products made.
Year 8 builds on the Y7 work by delivering content around macro nutrients, their source and functions. Dishes made are mainly savoury with increasing complexity suitable to serve as a family meal.
Y9 students learn the functional properties of food and nutrients and apply these when creating dishes, including using a range of cultural products.
The KS3 curriculum is taught as foundation knowledge that is necessary as a base for the KS4 course which enables students to access the KS4 content.
At KS4 (Y10) the course is taught according to the exam board content by topic which prepares students for the Y11 exam. Throughout Y11 students complete two pieces of coursework which contribute 50% of their total GCSE grade along with a written exam in the summer term of Y11.
The food and nutrition curriculum at KS3 is delivered through imparting of knowledge which is applied to enhance understanding through practical activities. Students understand the sequence of lessons and how they link to each other seeing the development of knowledge and understanding during the year and across the key stage.
Pupils have the prior knowledge to build upon content over time developing and extending knowledge from previous lesson sequences enabling them to learn new curriculum content. This is embedded using Do Now at the start of each theory lesson to consolidate and reinforce knowledge gained in previous lessons. Curriculum components (lesson by lesson) is chunked into topics to ensure all students reach defined end points. The KS 3 curriculum builds foundational knowledge with increased complexity to prepare students for the GCSE Food and Nutrition course in Y10 & 11. Each lesson begins with a Do Now activity to check prior knowledge and identify any gaps in learning or misconceptions. Lessons are adjusted to meet the needs of individual classes to ensure any gaps in learning are addressed so students all have the same knowledge as foundation for the KS4 content.