Welcome to the January issue of the primary newsletter intended especially for teachers and pupils. Please pass on any ideas or information that you find useful to parents and carers too.

Reminder to all registered schools! With the New Year upon us, it would be great to hear your plans for 2008. Share news of your Year of Food and Farming activities with other schools by updating your Space.

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Eating fresh produce, enjoying something you have made yourself, avoiding processed foods, knowing what is in your food, understanding how to eat for health and fitness, shopping and eating economically, supporting local farmers and local businesses, food miles, energy issues... these are just a few of the reasons home cooking matters.

Additionally, from an educational point of view, they encompass a whole range of learning objectives across the curriculum from technology to citizenship. Planning a short programme around the value of home cooking will enable you to work holistically and experientially with your pupils.

Let’s not forget the pleasure of working with fresh foods and preparing them for our families and friends. What an easy way to get your pupils talking about friendship, kindness, learning, practising, improving and being proud of yourself to name but a few. Cooking to explore the senses, provide feasts for the eyes, the nose, your taste buds... Eating what you cook yourself and knowing just how well you can look after yourself... What a wonderful set of reasons to encourage your pupils to take an interest in cooking. What a special classroom experience it would be to plan, cook and eat a bowl of something warm and tasty in the middle of a cold and dreary February.

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What’s in season in February?

Vegetables: Cabbage, swede, turnips, leeks, parsnips, shallots, squash, Brussels sprouts, Brussels tops, cauliflower, salsify, celeriac, chard, chicory, kohl rabi.
Fruit and nuts: “Forced” rhubarb.
Game: Guinea fowl, goose, wild rabbit and hare.
Fish: Mussels, halibut, lobster, lemon sole and other flat fish. The wild salmon season begins this month.
Cheese: Farmhouse cheddar, blue Cheshire, cotherstone.

What’s happening on the farm?

General farm maintenance and feeding and care of livestock continues. Winter sown arable crops are being fertilised and seed beds and vegetable beds are being prepared for sowing and planting. Early lambing and calving will be taking place but most sheep farms will generally be preparing for the lambing season.

For more information on the importance of farming today click on the link to "Resource Bank – Farming Matters" on the home page

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Sodexo cookery workshops:

Sodexo, a leading provider of school meals at primary and prep schools throughout the UK, has been chosen as an official partner for nutrition for the Year of Food and Farming. Sodexo will be providing hands on cookery classes for up to 9,000 children, to demonstrate the process from 'farm gate to plate', and will also provide them with a host of take-home activities.

Find out more at www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk/spaces/sodexo/General.aspx

Sainsbury’s Active Kids:

Active Kids aims to try and help address declining levels in exercise and growing levels of obesity among children. It involves an instore voucher collection scheme which encourages children to be more active and eat healthily. Last year, schools, guide and scout groups around the country exchanged their vouchers for a share of £18 million worth of Active Kids equipment and experiences. The Active Kids 2008 campaign will run from 14 February to 4 June. For more information, go to www.sainsburys.co.uk/activekids/

Enjoy England: Schools’ poetry competition

In support of the Year of Food and Farming, the theme of Enjoy England’s Celebrate St George’s Day Schools’ poetry writing competition 2008 is… food and farming. Poems are invited from young people aged 14 or under. Ideas and competition information can be found at www.celebratestgeorgesday.com

BBC: Breathing Places:

On 31 January the BBC added to its successful Breathing Places campaign with a new schools programme and the launch of the first “Do One Thing” activity aimed directly at schools. The idea is that all schools can do something to encourage and support wildlife even if they have limited space and little previous experience. The core “Do One Thing” activities are designed to be simple enough to be carried out by children in primary schools. The main activity for the spring term is planting for wildlife and a further “Do One Thing” activity will follow every term for the next two years.

Schools can register free on the BBC website to access various resource materials at www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/schools/

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With our focus on home cooking this month, it makes sense to cook in the classroom and get your pupils feeling enthusiastic about cooking “real” food. Root vegetables are plentiful in February and cheap enough to bring into the classroom for pupils to work with in many different ways including cooking.

Here is an idea which can help pupils learn how to use seasonal vegetables at home and also provide them with an example of some of the benefits of eating fresh produce instead of processed foods.

Pupils in Year R and Year 1 can have an enjoyable learning experience that starts long before the vegetables go into the pot. By using a selection of root vegetables pupils can sort by colour and shape. Use 5 or 6 potatoes to sort by size. Use 5 or 6 carrots or parsnips to sort by length. Talk about how the vegetables look before they are washed and after. Talk about how they feel, smell etc. Who likes what? Find out which is the most popular vegetable and which the least. Do your pupils know where chips come from? What about crisps? (Don’t forget vegetable crisps too.)

Move on to learning how to peel, chop, slice, grate etc. (observing your school’s health and safety guidelines). Use the terminology and talk about how it feels to use each skill. Use describing words for sounds, smells, shapes and sizes. Then cook! Try the recipe below. Make an occasion of enjoying the soup together and talk about how it feels to have made it yourselves.

Pupils from Y2 upwards can enjoy all of the above but you can also challenge them to consider the difference between eating tinned, processed soup and fresh homemade soup. What are the advantages of making vegetable (or indeed any other) soup yourself? Consider freshness, nutrition, produce sourcing, food miles and don’t forget taste and knowing exactly what is in your soup. Investigate vegetable families in more detail, find out where different vegetables grow best, what do they need to grow well? Why are vegetables important to nutrition? Which vegetables give us which vitamins? Can vitamins be destroyed in different cooking and preserving processes? The list is endless. Choose an area of study appropriate to your pupils, their age and their ability. The older or more able your pupils, the more challenging you can make their investigation. Encourage debate on using local foods and supporting local farmers. Extend these discussions, particularly those which include food miles, local economy and gm enhanced foods, into the wider world context for more able pupils.

Using our root vegetables as a stimulus will provide extensive opportunities for language development, and classification and conditions for growth will bring in science. The growth story can then be creatively developed through dance and drama and there are excellent opportunities for both detailed and expressive work in art. The Enormous Turnip will provide teachers of younger pupils a perfect starting point to explore seasonal vegetables through such an holistic approach.

Here is a simple and warming recipe for a soup made from seasonal root vegetables:

Finely chop or grate:

  • Two onions
  • Vegetable mix: carrot, swede, parsnip, turnip, leek (allow about a mugful per person and use whichever vegetables you have)
  • A tablespoon of oil
  • A dessertspoon curry powder
  • A stock cube or stock powder to taste
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • Enough water to cover the vegetables and the same amount again

Start cooking:

  • Gently fry the onions in a saucepan until translucent, then add the vegetables
  • Add a dessertspoon of curry powder, stir around, put the lid on and cook gently for about 10 minutes until it is all soft 
  • Add the water, stock cube and salt, put the lid on and let it cook for a few minutes
  • Liquidise and taste, adding more salt and pepper as necessary.

With thanks to Tina Deubert for the recipe.

For more information on sourcing your food locally click on the link to "Growing" on the home page

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The school vegetable garden :

  • Keep your vegetable beds clear of weeds and clear old plants such as Brussels sprouts and cabbages.
  • You can plant out carrots, winter lettuce, peas, potatoes, radishes, spinach, turnips, artichokes, garlic, shallots, onions, winter lettuce, early potatoes, seakale and rhubarb. Take care to protect your crops from frost and cold if necessary.
  • You may prefer to wait another month and spend this month planning what you are going to grow this year. You could spend time checking out seed catalogues and gardening advice on the internet.

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Curriculum links:

If you structure a programme of learning around this newsletter’s focus on home cooking and the related curriculum activities, you would have the opportunity to visit the following links in programmes of study. Please be aware that you would have to ensure coverage of the links through your own planning.

Geography:
KS1 :3e; 4a, 5a, b
KS2: 3g; 5a,b;6d, e; 7a

PSHE:
KS1: 1d; 2a,b,d,e,g; 3a,b,f 4b; 5a,b,c,h
KS2: 1a,c; 2a,f,j; 3a,b,g; 5d,e

Design and Technology:
KS1: 1a,c,d; 2a,c,f; 3a,b; 5b,c
KS2: 1c,d; 2a,d,f; 3a,c; 5b,c

English:
KS1: 1a through to f; 2a through to e; 3 a through to e; 8 c,d; 9a,b; 10a,b,c
KS2: 1 a through to e; 2 a through to e; 3 a through to d; 10 a,b,c

Science:
KS1: 1; 2a,b,c,e,f,g,h,i,j; Breadth of study: 1a; 2a,b
KS2 1; 2a,b,c,d,e,i,m; Breadth of study: 1a, 2a,b

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Other resources for schools:

Food – a fact of life onlineresources (Module 1) have been updated to reflect the recent changes to the UK healthy eating model, now called ‘The eatwell plate’. Information about healthy eating in worksheets, PowerPoint presentations and teachers’ guides are now in line with the new healthy eating model. The interactive activities are currently undergoing a face lift and will be available with their new look, soon. If you haven’t looked at the healthy eating resources for a while, now is a great chance to remind yourself what’s available at www.foodafactoflife.org.uk

The Horticultural Development Council has published a website which aims to promote seasonal fruit and vegetables – www.iminseason.com. The HDC is a levy body representing UK growers so is non-branded. The resources, which have been written by freelance dieticians, include photos of all UK produce and recipes.

Heart of England Fine Foods has launched a new website for young people who are interested in learning more about the food and drink produced in the West Midlands (www.heff.co.uk/youngatheff/). By visiting this website you can find out about farms and the food grown on them, eating well and staying healthy, the environment and how we can make a difference and careers in the food industry.

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School activities:

Lewknor C of E Primary School

The school is a key partner in the Lewknor Chiltern Gateway Project, an environment initiative run by the local church, and through this has become much more aware of a whole range of issues concerned with sustainability and the local environment. The Gateway Project is leading the schools Eco Schools Award programme and runs a Nature Club in school. Both the Nature Club and Eco Schools work include aspects of food and farming, exploring locally and organically produced food and land use, as well as learning about the local red kite population. The nature club even have their own adopted sheep!

https://www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk/spaces/lewknor/School.aspx

Hill Farm Nursery School, Norwich

Hill Farm is a small nursery school set on a working farm which has always had strong links with the farm and the local community. The children are very aware of the Year of Food and Farming and where their food comes from as this is a main theme of their academic year. One of their projects for this year is compost making. The children put leftover fruit and vegetable matter from snack and lunch time in their new Rolypig compost bin which eventually will end up on the vegetable patch.

The children have always had a fruit and vegetable patch, growing runner beans, courgettes, tomatoes and strawberries which they have enjoyed eating. They also plant seeds to take home and grow.

The children enjoy cooking. At harvest time they make bread, connecting the wheat that they have seen growing and harvested with the flour used in the dough. They also make soup, pancakes, and an individual Christmas cake cooked in a baked bean tin.

The school links teaching topics to village life and in the autumn the school had a role play Farmer's Market as Acle celebrated the first anniversary of its own farmers’ market.

https://www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk/spaces/hill-farm-nursery-school/School.aspx

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Did you know?

  • The earliest carrots were red, black, yellow, white and purple. The orange carrot was first grown in Holland.
  • In 1952 the first toy ever was advertised on television. It was Mr Potato Head!
  • Ancient Egyptians thought that onions kept away evil spirits. When they made an oath they placed one hand on an onion.

Sources:

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