Dean Clough Cooking School’s primary focus on food in schools

From the start of the new academic year, cooking is back on the primary school curriculum with the introduction of the Government’s £150m School Food Plan to promote all-round healthier children through more nutrionally balanced diets.

To ensure Calderdale and other school staff are ‘prepped’ for the introduction of compulsory cooking classes, Halifax’s Dean Clough has hosted Focus on Food classes, throughout the year.

Focus on Food is one of the main delivery organisations within the Food for Life Partnership working to achieve school meal take-up by at least five per cent.

Focus on Food director, Jane Sixsmith, said: “It’s an exciting time for us and we’re ready to support schools to delivercooking as one of the best and most effective learning lessons.”

Calderdale Council funded the School’s Teaching Cooking Confidently course with 20 Calderdale schools having enrolled and more are expected to enquire in September.

The School’s Focus on Food team has created three new positions to cope with teaching demand.

Calderdale Council’s Public Health Manager, Gaynor Scholefield, said: “We’ve ran Focus on Food courses at the Cooking School with sessions aimed at helping school staff improve their skills, with practical training as well as in-school support.

“We are already working with the Food for Life Partnership - a network of nearly 5,000 schools across England committed to transforming food culture.

“Sixty per cent of schools in Calderdale are signed up with the partnership and it is hoped more schools will now sign up.”