Allotments 4 All

Can,t quite believe it had to re-read the letter.

My daughter came home from school with a list of ingredients for a fruit crumble

Flour
Block Marg
Sugar
TINNED FRUIT PIE FILLING

What about all the lovely fruit in season at the moment - after all the freezing i ve been doing the last couple of weeks there is no way i,m gonna buy a tin of fruit filling!

Kids need to learn how to prepare the fruit don,t they?

I m gonna start rambling soon i,m just so incensed!

That sounds a bit like the list my son got which included:
"one packet of crumble mix (preferably Co-op)"     !

Daughter had a similar one, "Mum we are making pizza at school, here are the ingredients"  Top of the list..............1 ready made pizza base!
Luckily they make there own at home all the time so it wasn't a big deal for her, but all those others that never get to cook at home..quite sad really.

It is a sad reflection isn't it?  No wonder school dinners went they way they did.  I do hope things are changing?  :) busy_lizzie

My daughter is pretty competent in the kitchen too, so I guess we did something right ...

Derekthefox :D

My girls have never come home with any nonsense like that, and the cooking they've done at school has always been good. It probably depends on the school, so a letter to the Head might be in order.

One of the problems for teachers is the level of parental involvement in cooking. I know of a least one case where the ingredients for the cookery lesson would have used up all the mother's spare cash for the week, for one dessert! And left her with a lot of opened packets of stuff she would never have used.
School cookery lessons are a delicate balance between what is available to ALL and what is not and what is practicable within the time scale of the lesson!

I know what you mean Eric.  When I was young my mother used to dread my cookery lessons because she didn't have the money to buy any fancy ingredients.  Then one year we got a new cookery teacher and she used to buy the ingredients in bulk and just charge the pupils a small amount which seems the best idea.

It was called "Domestic Science" in my day and used to involve the running of a house with,  as well as cooking also the washing, ironing and cleaning.  It was very politically incorrect though as only the girls attended "Domestic Science" whereas the boys went to "Metalwork and Woodwork". busy_lizzie

I appreciate comments about cost/fancy ingredients and opening packets which may never be used again but not sure this applies to apple crumble - not sure that a lb of bramleys would cost more than a tin of pie filling especially when they are in season - but then I don't know how much a tin of pie filling would cost.

I'm also aware that lesson time may be of consideration especially with a class of 12 year olds to supervise.

I just think this is a reflection of society - not enough time, thats why convenience food has become such a necessity to many families

In my domestic science classes we were usually split into groups of 4 or 6 when it came to ingredients and told to work out who would bring what  eg. one girl would bring a bag of flour, another a block of marge etc.  and the teacher had a larder and fridge with basics in case one girl was off sick that day.  If anything took too long the teacher would take it out of the oven for us and we'd come back for a few minutes at the end of the day to do whatever else was needed. 

Simpler times eh!  This was only in 1986!

M.

I remember having to do half a term of cooking/sewing and the other half woodwork/metalwork. I brought in a bag of wholemeal flour(parents were into green lifestyle) and the teacher didn't know what to do with it.... This would of been about 1978.

Delilah, I am completely on your side, and think you misunderstood my posting.  I think  children should be taught to make things from scratch.  To ask for tinned fruit for a pie is unacceptable.  It would have been easy enough for either the children to bring fruit in or the Teacher to supply it. 

I was from a very poor family where it was difficult enough to feed us all without having to buy ingredients. I would hope and think that the poverty I grew up with is not so widespread nowadays.  I was just reminiscing.  You are right the need to be able to cook is not necessary nowadays, which degrades the quality of our food, when all you need to do is warm something up in a microwave or open a tin.  I think children should be taught how to cook properly, so they can appreciate the value of  food.  :) busy_lizzie 

My son came home last week with a recipe including tinned pie filling too!  He felt strongly that he wanted to take the same as everyone else so despite the fact I have seven huge apple trees I confess I went and bought him a tin. 

They only have one hour for their lesson so I can appreciate why this was specified but I wanted to get him to cook the apples the night before. I didn't worry too much though as he had made an apple crumble from scratch the weekend before so I know he knows what to do with apples to prepare them. 

My sympathies are with the teacher only having an hour in the curriculum to teach each class and only for one term a year so they are not going to learn that much.

It's funny, it is my boys who both love cooking and my daughter is not interested!

I went to a single sex school (Boys, just in case you thought otherwise..they wouldn't let me in the girls school) so the domestic science lessons were not on the curriculum.

I would imagine that most schools now have Micro-wave ovens etc. too

We do not possess a micro-wave oven, half the fun of cooking the 'old fashioned' way are the cooking smells that build up the appetite.

Derek

tulippa - just spoken to my daughter, I was so hung up on her not taking a tin of pie filling that it never occured to me that she might feel the odd one out - she is quite keen to take apples from our garden, we are going to prepare them tonight, so thats a relief but I can understand how your son must have felt.

Apparently she will be doing a term of cookery/sewing then a term of woodwork/metalwork not sure about the third term!

I didn,t even know where the woodwork/metalwork and TD classrooms were in my school - so perhaps there has been some progress

Buzy Lizzie - Sorry for the misunderstanding!

Doris Pinks - Would you believe they are making pizza next week and yes you guessed it, top of the list was ready made pizza base!!!!!!

We ate the apple and blackberry crumble for pudding last night - it was luuuuuuuuuuurvly

  ;D  ;D  ;D   Has she made cupcakes yet?? ;D  Wish they would teach them how to make a spaghetti bolognaise or shepherds pie, something that would be useful when they leave home!! ;)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4303954.stm

This article heading says it is about cookery lessons but it is more about school dinners.  It does say that cookery lessons are not compulsory in secondary schools at the moment.  If the government wants to re-educate  people in what to eat I would have thought it would be ideal to do it at secondary school and turn out a new generation of healthy eaters.  I hope they manage to do something about it.