Food Education in England - are there any reasons to be optimistic?

That’s really interesting, Sam, what you were just saying about the names of subjects. Obviously, I’m going to be talking about food and nutrition education going forward. There was a post on LinkedIn a few weeks ago, maybe a week ago, which picked up on an article that Louise wrote. The person who posted picked up on something that I felt actually was interesting and that is that they used the term 'food technology' and we know that that isn't actually the name of our subject.

But what I really want to talk about is what we’ve got, and the reasons we have to be optimistic. I really feel that in so many ways we can just get buried in all the challenges across art and design, across design and technology, across food and nutrition and certainly from my point of view we have got a lot to be optimistic about. 

So, are there reasons to be optimistic? I would say 'hell yeah'... For those of you who know me, that’s not my usual language, but I thought that was the way to approach it for this. I believe there are lots of reasons for us to look forward.

We have a new food and nutrition curriculum. It’s going to be called “food and nutrition”, which is great. That’s going to be its name. It’s not going to be a standalone subject, but it will be a discrete subject within the parent subject of design and technology. It will have its own clear purpose, rationale and content with specificity. Thank you very much. I say that all the time. I feel it’s going to be a really great start. It’s due to be published next spring, for teaching in schools from 2028.

We’ve also got greater attention from Ofsted. Now, some people say they don’t want that, but from a food education point of view I think it’s a very positive thing. There is a new judgement in Ofsted inspections: when inspectors come into schools, they will judge whether the school is creating a culture around healthy eating. That covers the whole school and things like breakfast, but it also specifically covers food education. Senior leaders, governors and headteachers will have to respond to questions from Ofsted about food education, and I personally think that’s really positive.

There was also a recent white paper about inclusion in schools, about every child achieving and thriving, and I think that’s fantastic. One of the main things it talked about was enrichment, and cooking and gardening activities were included as examples. We need to make sure that food isn’t just extra enrichment activities but it can be a fantastic way to give an experimental learning opportunity for pupils and get them to thing beyond the classroom environment. 

The great thing is that the new curriculum has fantastic connections with the school food standards. The consultation is out today. The two working together in order to exemplify how good food education can be in schools and it’s a brilliant way to bring food as context to life for pupils.

So I think there are reasons to be optimistic. There’s clear momentum behind food education through curriculum reform, accountability, enrichment and updated standards. Together, these changes can equip young people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to eat well, stay healthy and thrive.

There are challenges, and we won’t be able to deal with all of them very easily, and Louise will be talking later on about where we stand on issues around Key Stage 4 at the moment. But there is also much to celebrate. I'm trying to end this first part of the morning with something positive.