Welcome to Year 7 Catering 

The development of cookery throughout history has proven pivotal to human evolution, as such, food and cookery has placed itself at the centre of civilisation, culture, tradition and people’s everyday life for thousands of years.   

At Castle Manor Food Preparation and Nutrition is a subject with both theoretical and practical elements, cookery and knowledge of nutrition is a vital life skill, development of which will give students the tools needed to lead healthy lifestyles in the future.  

Food lessons at Castle Manor promote independence, creativity, confidence and curiosity in the world of food around us.  

Through both theory and practical lessons students will build and develop a repertoire of core skills such as knife skills, key cooking methods and an understanding of the functional properties of ingredients. Application of this knowledge will be vital as students will prepare a variety of predominantly savoury dishes. The curriculum is designed to be broad, sequenced and ambitious. High expectations in both theory and practical lessons ensure students leave their Food lessons able to access a range of skills and knowledge, building a complex mastery of skills year on year. 

The PROUD values are interwoven through the curriculum and students have many opportunities so showcase these. 

Professional – Students have the opportunity to take part in a variety of prestigious school events through their KS3 learning, such as Open Evening and Haverhill Heroes, in these events students have to work within time constraints and produce dishes to a standard suitable for serving to the community.  

Resilient – Practical cookery is a skill that not everyone feels comfortable carrying out. At Castle Manor our curriculum is designed so students understand the principles behind how ingredients work, understanding why a dish or process might have gone wrong and being able to fix this builds resilience. 

Optimistic – Every single student is given the opportunity to cook at Castle Manor. Confidence and skills are built through the curriculum, leading to learners who can approach recipes, no matter the skill level with confidence and optimism, 

Understanding – Throughout the KS3 curriculum students will encounter dishes from different cuisines and dietary choices. Students will understand why people choose, or a forced to make decisions regarding their diet and how this can impact their health. Common misconceptions regarding special diets are spoken about and corrected in a safe environment 

Driven – At the end of the year students are assessed practically, this gives them the opportunity to choose a dish to cook. Learners are encouraged to choose dishes related to the skills we have been building and are discouraged from cooking the same dish each time. This exposes learners to many different dishes and recipes and instils a drive to want to challenge themselves.  

Staffing 

Miss C Spurling 

Team Leader for Arts and Technology 

Curriculum Intent for Year 7 

Year 7 will begin their learning journey at Castle Manor by developing their theory knowledge of Health and Safety. This is key to unlocking practical skills in order to make food safe to eat throughout their time at school and throughout life. In the second half of the term students will begin to explore the links between food and health. Using knowledge gained at KS2, students review the Eatwell Guidelines and learn sources and functions of macronutrients and the impacts of excess and deficiency.  

Practical lessons focus on baking skills such as the rubbing in and creaming method.  In the second half of the term we aim to build students knife skills and learning basic, safe vegetable preparation. These skills act as ‘gateways’ to other, more complex dishes. Learning how to master these processes in year 7 enable students to become more independent going forward, so we can spend time building in more complex cookery skills.  

Curriculum Map for Year 7