The UK Food Valley team recently paid a visit to Washingborough Academy to find out more about their unique Food Education curriculum. Headteacher, Dr Jason O’Rourke, explained how the curriculum, which is recognised as excellent practice both nationally and internationally, allows students to learn about the foods they eat, how to cook and the importance of food socially, culturally and environmentally.

Dr O’Rourke, whose doctoral research focused on food education and school leadership, discussed his long-standing interest in food and how something that people engage with at least three times a day has such a profound impact on our physical and mental health and well-being. This inspired his ambition to sit Food Education at the heart of Washingborough Academy’s curriculum, and it has since become a unique advantage for the school.

Establishing their growing facilities has been a community affair, with raised beds being created from scaffolding donated by two of the school’s families. Students also have access to a 300m² kitchen garden and a 90 metre polytunnel. Their heritage orchards grow Lincolnshire apples, and in the vegetable gardens they grow heirloom varieties of vegetables including 19 different types of tomatoes, where students are additionally taught to harvest and store the seeds. This dedication has not gone unnoticed: Washingborough Academy is the only school who has an in-house chef with the Soil Association’s gold catering mark. They were also one of pilot schemes for Jamie Oliver kitchen garden project, which will be relaunched soon.

When Dr O’Rourke first arrived at the school, there was no kitchen. After being unhappy with the quality of 3rd party providers, the school recruited their own chef who uses organic and local suppliers. The breakfast club provides students with a hearty start to the day with bread baked by the chef; the only cereals on offer are healthy low sugar/high fibre cereals. The school is one of 12 schools in the UK piloting the new School Food Standards.

But it’s not only the school chef who cooks – each class cooks once a week too. The school also has a Snack Shack where children prepare a healthy snacks to sell to fellow students on a rotation. As well as providing healthy food, this provides students with fundamental life skills and an awareness of the food choices they make, and students are given a food education journal that follows them through school which helps reinforce these positive habits.

These choices are established as soon as children join Washingborough Academy. TastEd (a food education charity that Dr O’Rourke co-founded) provides EYFS and KS1 students with a fun platform to try new foods and recognise the role that our senses play when eating and this pioneering sensory based food education programme has also been recognised by the Department for Education. The school’s Sensory Food Education curriculum is additionally being used as a case study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) as best practice for their Schools Food & Nutrition Education programme.

If you have a relevant business and would like to get involved please contact enquiries@washac.org 

Changing food education in the UK | Taste Education