Teaching Primary Food and Nutrition
By Frances Meek, Education Services Manager, British Nutrition Foundation.
Are you a primary teacher, trainee or teaching assistant? Then this is for you.
Teaching Primary Food and Nutrition is a new professional development programme.
The British Nutrition Foundation is delighted to announce the launch of the Teaching Primary Food and Nutrition (TPFN) programme, which has been developed to equip teachers, trainees and teaching assistants with the necessary knowledge and skills to teach high quality food and nutrition lessons, and inspire them to champion a whole school approach to food. The programme formalises and supports professional learning around food and nutrition teaching.
TPFN is a free, continuing professional development (CPD) programme for the busy primary teacher, trainee or teaching assistant. While teaching food and nutrition may take up a relatively small part of the curriculum, it does have some unique management issues and teaching approaches which need to be carefully considered (for example, managing and teaching practical cooking lessons).
The overall aim of the programme is to build confidence and competence in teaching food and nutrition, whether practitioners are new to the profession, or have been teaching, or working in schools, for a while (we can all learn something new).
The TPFN programme is built on two important documents, providing a firm foundation to support primary practitioner’s professional development.
These are:
A framework of knowledge and skills (2015) - a government checklist of key knowledge and skills
Characteristics of good practice in teaching food and nutrition in primary schools (2020) - a guide to exemplify what good food teaching looks like in primary schools
These two documents set out knowledge and skills to be developed over time, in order to deliver high quality food and nutrition lessons. The concept for both documents is to set standards and provide helpful, practical guidance for the classroom. There is no expectation for practitioners to master every aspect , the documents are there to help them feel more confident and competent about delivering food lessons to pupils in their school.
The two documents cover the following eight areas of practice, which are the basis of the TPFN programme. Both documents also cover developing professional competence, which practitioners will demonstrate by being involved and engaged in the programme.
How will the TPFN programme help the busy primary practitioner?
Working through the programme will allow practitioners to:
identify and build on their strengths
determine areas of development and training
plan their own professional development against national documents
take responsibility for their own professional development
gather and store everything needed to plan, implement and evidence their learning journey in a FREE physical portfolio*.
*The physical portfolio will be sent to the first 1,500 primary practitioners who register for the TPFN programme.
In relation to food and nutrition teaching, it will:
build on food skills and practical classroom management
update food and nutrition subject knowledge, such as that around healthier and more sustainable diets and where food comes from
increase confidence and competence.
How will the busy primary practitioner get the most from the TPFN programme?
Complete a food and nutrition experience self-audit, which identifies areas of strength, areas that need refreshing and areas where there is little or no experience.
Proactively engage with the portfolio process and use it to plan and support personal training needs along with recording and evidencing professional development.
Engage with the TPFN training programme including virtual webinars, practical workshops and conferences all designed to equip practitioners with the necessary knowledge and skills to teach high quality food and nutrition lessons.
Remember that CPD does not only relate to formal training courses. It is important to recognise the wealth of professional learning experiences found in day-to-day practice and through engagement with pupils, trainee teachers, stakeholders, and professional organisations, such as the British Nutrition Foundation, CLEAPSS, and the D&T Association.
Carry out reflection of your practice, including ongoing and summative reflection, which provides useful insight that should fuel the process of self-discovery and teaching improvement.
Update the British Nutrition Foundation on progress and successes!
What should you do now?
Find out more about the Teaching Primary Food and Nutrition professional development programme and register as soon as you can. The first 1,500 primary practitioners will receive a free physical professional portfolio, which will be sent out later this term. Further mailings will take place during the second year of the project, to support you as you develop your portfolio.
Acknowledgement
The British Nutrition Foundation gratefully acknowledges the support of the All Saints Educational Trust in the development of this programme (enabling it to be provided free of charge to UK primary schools).
British Nutrition Foundation - https://www.nutrition.org.uk/
Food – a fact of life – https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/
Teaching Primary Food and Nutrition - https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/teaching-primary-food-and-nutrition/
Contact – education@nutrition.org.uk
