Hospitality & Catering

Our vision:

The value of good cooking skills cannot and should not be underestimated, and our overarching aim is to enable all of our students to have the confidence and skills to be able to cook safely.

At KS3, we look at a wide range of practical skills through our cooking as well as the importance of a healthy and balanced diet. Students will study dishes from around the world, cost of foods and the welfare of animals, as well as the origins on food. Safety within a practical environment is paramount and this is something that is revisited every lesson, within the context of the foods being made as well as in relation to knife skills and hygiene. Students develop confidence, understanding and are able to experiment with different dishes and adapt recipes to suit their own tastes. We aim at KS3 to cook for half of the curriculum, whilst offering theoretical advice and support within the practical lessons.

Catering and hospitality are a very important industry here in the UK, and as such we look at these elements within the hospitality and catering course at KS4. Students will learn about the necessary elements of the hospitality and catering industry, including practical cooking, but for the most part, students gain an understanding of the complexities of the industry. That a restaurant or hotel does not just happen because someone owns the business, there are many different factors that are needed to work together to build and maintain a successful business in a very competitive industry.

We see our key objectives as:

• Providing all students with the necessary skills to be able to cook a healthy, balanced and cost effective meal.
• Give students the knowledge to understand the importance of a healthy and balanced diet.
• Allow students to develop choices and taste within their cooking as well as the confidence to try new foods.

As a department, we believe that Catering is important to a student’s programme of study for a number of reasons:

• Cooking teaches us lessons about being able to use food and create new dishes, develop skills and have the ability to create food for ourselves.
• It allows us to understand the importance of foods, how and where they are grown and developed. The understanding of minimising food waste.
• Catering teaches us valuable skills; safety within a kitchen environment, good hygiene practices, developing food tastes and how spices and herbs can be used to reduce salt intake, how important it is to recycle, and the value of a healthy and balanced diet.

Learning JourneyKey Stage Three Programmes of StudyKey Stage Four Programmes of Study Exam board: WJEC Hospitality and Catering

Name and email address of key post-holder:

 Ms O’Kill                      Curriculum Leader for Catering – mcgranes@oha.swecet.org