Spuds You'll Like

Primary schools are being encouraged to pant their own potatoes next term, as part of a national project. To mark the international year of the potato in 2008, the British Potato Council is asking pupils to chip in and grow their own. All schools that register before February 8th will be given free seed potatos and a £5 voucher towards compost. The council has compiled a range of online education resources.The school that grows the most potatoes will be given a digital camera.

Cookery lessons to become compulsory... for secondary pupils?!

The Daily Mail (Saturday 3rd Feb) reports:
'Compulsory cooking lessons could be put on the school curriculum in an attempt to tackle the obesity epidemic among children. All 11 to 14 year olds would be taught how to make healthy meals from basic ingredients to counter an obsession with junk food... Education Secretary Alan Johnson said that he hoped compulsory lessons would lead to a resurgence in home cooking. "I want kids rolling up their sleeves and getting to grips with simple healthy meals from scratch," he said.'

I think this is great news. One of the reasons that children get into junk food is because they just don't know how to cook properly.

However, I don't understand why this initiative doesn't include primary age children. Surely this is the age at which children begin to acquire their tastes and it is important to teach them the right way to develop a love of food at an early age.

Our school has introduced a small amount of cooking into the curriculum and the Year Threes visit the local high school to practice cooking some items of food. One local school has a teaching assistant who teaches all the children three times a year to cook a proper meal from scratch.

I applaud this idea from Alan Johnson, but I just wish they would extend it!