It's great to hear that Jamie O is still persevering with the secondary schools and is now championing a new cooking course in conjunction with major examining body, Edexcel. The course will be known as Home Cooking skills Course and taught at Key stage 3 – so for 11-14 year olds.
Thing is, this is all great and lovely but we've already got Licence to Cook and Let's get cooking schemes in place. I guess it can't help to have another but what Jamie doesn't seem to realise is that if the teachers are juggling ever burgeoning time tables, increased pupil numbers, budget cuts and no teachers, don't be surprised if yet again, as is normally the case, subjects such as cooking normally fall to the wayside.
What Jamie needs to do is have a serious word with the Head Teachers, School Governors and food shop owners, those that actually hold any real muscle in making decisions related to curriculum and other important matters such as eating well, that ultimately shape the calibre of students we release into the big wide world.
We all know cooking is key and that every child needs to learn to eat good, wholesome, healthy food, particularly with the alarming rise in obesity. Unfortunately, with more and more depressingly cheap "Chicken and Chips" shops opening on every corner, very close to our local schools and more head teachers having to deal with serious matters such as whether or not their school is to become an academy or merge with another, it's little wonder they'll have any time for sweet Jamie O and his cuddly wuddly cooking course.
Watch this space….!
