Our weekly blog has been written by Mr Hampton, who updates us on the delicious achievements and progress of his pupils. From puff pastry to fresh pasta, sushi to sweet treats, interest in Hospitality and Catering is growing steadily each year.

As the Food Studies teacher at Bethany, I make it my continued mission to provide an exciting and enjoyable experience to all of our pupils.

Looking back over this past year, I am filled with immense pride seeing the achievements and progress pupils have achieved.

Daily, I get to celebrate the wonderful things pupils do. They never cease to amaze me, and I take so much pleasure in teaching Bethany pupils such an important life skill.

So what have we been getting up to?

This year, I decided to push pupils to see how well they cope being put under pressure. Pupils have adapted extremely well and produced some excellent dishes throughout KS3 and KS4. They have prepared a range of both sweet and savoury dishes, most of which rarely made it home at the end of the day! As a food teacher, there is no better sense of gratification than seeing pupils eat what they have made with a look of pride and achievement on their faces.

Year 7s started their journey by looking at food safety, health and safety and the many DOs and DON’Ts of the kitchen. In Year 8 pupils have been introduced to many high-level skills, including making fresh egg pasta, alongside my award-winning Bolognese recipe; rough-puff pastry; homemade pizzas and sushi.

It has been quite a journey, but all pupils have engaged exceptionally well and are already at the right trajectory should they choose to take Hospitality and Catering as one of their options at GCSE. Numbers for Hospitality and Catering as an option in Year 10 and 11 are growing each year. This is very positive news.

The Year 10s have recently been focusing on developing and enhancing the skills they have been taught over the year in preparation for their examination in Year 11. We have been looking at a range of high-level skills including portioning and deboning a chicken, making different types of pastry and how to adapt recipes to suit the nutritional needs of different groups of people. One lesson focused on sensory analysis, tasting a range of meat substitutes and plant-based products, which led onto discussions about textures, flavours and similarities to the meat and dairy options. Pupils engaged extremely well with this task, something they will need to be prepared to talk about in their NEA examination.

This year has also seen the introduction of Cooking Club as part of the Wednesday afternoon enrichment programme. This has been very popular and a wonderful addition to the range of extra-curricular activities available to pupils. We have made baked doughnuts, nachos, chicken goujons with mayonnaise, soft Oreo cookies and more. As always, pupils arrive full of enthusiasm which is a fantastic way to end a Wednesday afternoon.

I truly have the best job at Bethany School, just don’t let the other teachers know!

Mr Hampton
Food Studies