Food and Schools.

[Lumpy]

On our local news tonight was a report that Newland St Johns Primary had won an award.

What for you might ask - for having a Lottie (no not our venerable Grape) to encourage the kids to sow, tend and harvest but also for allowing every child to have cookery lesson.

Whoop whoop to them.

The powers that be regularly blame fast food, financial expenses and time shortages for why our kids are becoming increasingly obese. Our younger parents were educated in a system that has dropped these issues in favour of more tech based courses so I believe it’s no wonder most don’t have a clue.

Do you agree that growing and cookery lessons (along with basic first aid in my opinion) should be a mainstay of our educational system?

[Stan79]

Great news!

My kids school regularly grow things with the kids, bring in animals in and do cooking lessons but this sounds like another level. Great idea. I will be suggesting to the Headteacher they could have a veg plot!

[Guest]

I think powercuts would be a great benefit in schools and it would benefit the staff as much as the children. The art of handwriting with a pen or pencil, reading different handwriting, learning about the great outdoors and going out to enjoy the great outdoors, orienteering (map reading). It is lovely that we have technology but too many people go to it in the first instance and creating a whole host of lazy related issues IMO.

Sorry rant finished

What happened to the green cross code, the country code and cycling proficiency??? these used to be extra to the curriculum along with after school clubs.

Ok now my rant is finished

[burnie]

My Grandchildren get to do a lot of those things mentioned, clearly some schools do still have their collective feet on the ground, though a lottie is not available due to lack of ground.

[veggiechicken]

I've no idea what is taught in schools these days but I know that my local primary school has 3 bee hives which the pupils help to look after.

[Scarlet]

My boys did a lot of extra stuff in school and out. I don't agree that it should all come from school - Mums and Dads should participate. In primary and junior I was often the Mum that volunteered to go on school trips and help out during the art lessons. My OH was always father Xmas at the Xmas fair.I found it was usually the same Mums and Dads that supported the school football/rugby teams.
They once went on an activity week and one of my boys friends couldn't ride a bike!!

Our school didn't have a garden big enough for a veg plot but they wanted chickens!!! OMG, I complained bitterly- who was going to look after them in the holidays?

I'm not great at maths but I can teach my boys life skills. Both my boys cook very well, I believe some things should be taught at home and the academic stuff for school.

Sorry, I will get off my pedestal now.

[SarrissUK]

I agree with Scarlet, although it would be great if kids can be taught these things at school, parents have a responsibility too to bring those kinds of things into their kids' lives, even if it's just showing them how veg is grown, and to give them veg to eat.

[Scarlet]

I did "show" them how to grow veg but they weren't interested!




......they also nicked my Apple cider vinegar from the chicken shed to make rockets

[bramble]

Everything is all about academics now.
Not many life skills being taught.
No knitting or sowing taught .
Some schools do gardening but only those with enough space.
When my son was going to school it was close to the swimming pool.
The children were brought there every Friday afternoon and taught to swim.
My daughters school were great at all the extras and included a little of everything both indoor and outdoor activities.

[1Bee]

Definitely growing and cooking are basic life skills that all children should have the opportunity to learn, and I love that a school has a lottie.

I DO want school to teach basic budgeting and money management, and I definitely want schools to teach kids to spot when someone is trying to manipulate their thinking - eg videos, news, social media posts with an agenda, or where a nugget of 'fact' is surrounded by so much loaded language it's distorting the point, or scams or miss-selling. That sort of discernment is a survival skill these days.

(As for handwriting, I find it mad that 5 year olds are being taught their letters with all the serifs and flicks on them because in a couple of years they'll be tested on cursive handwriting... But at least they're doing basic coding, too, which will be much more relevant.)

[JanieB]

Hmmmh! I was taught basic cookery and sewing at school. Me and my sister found it incredibly boring as our parents and grandparents had already taught us.

When it came to my children, their cookery lessons consisted of taking a Mrs Whoevers cookery mixture in and using it teaching them nothing.

I made a point of teaching my children the basics as that is the foundation of all cookery. Pastry, roux, sauces, batter etc. It was also fun with my children in the kitchen and it meant that they ate it as they had made it and were proud of having done so.

Also, living on a farm we grew a lot of our own produce and they were expected to help, so we had no problems with getting them to eat what they had helped to produce. I have to make an exception with plums which my MIL had a thing about and we got heartily sick of.

[greenishfing]

I agree with lots of the different points made. I left school not knowing how to cook. I did have " domestic science " lessons at school and my mother was a great cook. I had no interest. My aunt tried bribing me to garden with her to no avail. Children can only be encouraged, not forced.When I left home after a short spell of living on chocolate I taught myself how to cook and many years later would consider myself an excellent cook. Gardenning and growing veg came many years later. When my niece was young my sister was only insistent about one skill....reading. As she said "If you can read you can learn anything you want later. I agree! That is what all schools should focus on. I also think that school meals don't help children's health. In the "old" days there was no choice and definitely no chips or fried foods.We were hungry and ate whatever was put in front of us. We are encouraging fat, faddy children. As for sewing and knitting, I can do them, including aran, fair isle and picture knits, making curtains and clothes if I want but don't think they need to be taught in school. I also think that many parents don't help and encourage their children enough and blame schools for their own inadequacies.

[JanieB]

Oh I so agree GF. I married a rather mean farmer and I had to learn how to do a lot of things. I bought the Readers Digest DIY manual and it was invaluable. Small plumbing jobs, putting up shelves, mending wooden furniture etc. And I actually enjoy doing it all to this day.

[gardening_gal]

Why don't we have a clapping emoji???? I need one right now to agree wholeheartedly especially with greenishfing (incidentally I've been reading that as greenfishing for yonks, I only just realised when I typed it out )

My school (kinda) taught me to make apple pie, despite the fact I had no clue how to make a pan of mince or even pasta and sauce. Priorities were all wrong imo. 'Funding' determined what we were making during the term, not what was of more use to us.

I had no interest in gardening/growing/general life skills until I was older. I completely shut off and became very disinterested if I had to sit through a lesson on something I found boring and irrelevent (at that time) to me.

I had a good grounding in the basics though and when things did become more relevent to me, I was able to read, research and learn about them myself.

I think focusing on certain aspects of what kids should learn isn't maybe the best way to go. I struggle with the laid back teaching these days - it's ok to not speak properly (despite the fact kids spell the way they speak) but hey ho we're going to teach you to make an apple pie! Yay! Ok sarcasm go the better of me there, sorry. I just wish schools would concentrate on standards first. Firm foundations make for stronger knowledge in any subject.

Ok I can sense I'm going off on one now, I shall move along and go make tea.

[Lumpy]

Thank you, you lot very thought provoking.
The way I see it is -
If we don’t start putting real effort into teaching our kids to grow and possibly cook their efforts we are going to end up with very tech and media savvy parents who don’t have a clue (thank the universe for as many exceptions as possible). I really believe we are starting to see the consequences of this future already. Take always, ready meals and high cal treats are creating a future time bomb for everybody.

Parents who already don’t have a clue cannot teach their kids without a huge amount of swotting.

The way things are going in not many more generations almost all farming will be intensive, chemically overdosed pre prepped food suppliers.

I don’t want the meat animals to be kept in cages stuffed with lab created drugs and I don’t want my fruit and veggies toxic because of the chemicals.

Only if we encourage and educate now can we be sure of a future for people that includes better practices and healthier meat, veg and fruit.

Here OK rant over.