Bringing food to life: Oak Curriculum to Classroom
By Roy Ballam, Food Education Consultant & Frances Meek, British Nutrition Foundation
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In recent years, food education has been recognised as a core element of a broad and balanced curriculum. To support this, Oak National Academy partnered with the British Nutrition Foundation to design and publish a comprehensive Cooking and nutrition curriculum for Key Stages 1 to 3, featuring 108 sequenced lessons that combine practical food skills with essential subject knowledge for pupils aged 5–14.
This new curriculum aims to help schools meet the National Curriculum purpose for Cooking and nutrition: to equip pupils with the skills to understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook. The lessons progressively develop pupils’ procedural, substantive and disciplinary knowledge, from basic food safety, food skills, and healthy eating concepts in primary years, through to more complex food preparation techniques, sustainable diets, and culturally diverse food experiences in KS3.
Each lesson includes a slide deck, worksheet, video, starter and exit quizzes, plus recipe guides and teacher support notes designed to reduce planning workload and increase teaching confidence. The resources are rich in vocabulary development, embed food science and sustainability, and include a mix of practical dishes that reflect healthy and culturally diverse diets, with most recipes being plant-rich and adaptable to dietary needs.
The curriculum is structured around carefully mapped threads, thematic strands such as healthy eating, food provenance, sensory evaluation, food science, consumer awareness, food culture, and sustainability. These run through all units to ensure coherence and progression. For example, pupils encounter the Eatwell Guide early on and later build on that knowledge in KS3 to understand nutrients, dietary choices, and the activities surrounding food production and processing.
To support schools and teachers in adopting the new materials effectively, the British Nutrition Foundation has also been offering a series of free professional development (CPD) sessions under the banner ‘Oak - Food curriculum to classroom.’ The training has been kindly funded by the All Saints Educational Trust.
These webinars cover a range of topics, from getting started with the curriculum and planning effective CPD, to practical classroom strategies, inclusive teaching approaches, and using the resources to empower independent learning. The webinars have all been recorded and are available on the Food – a fact of life website to watch on catch-up. The recordings are also useful support for team and department training in schools.
We have been running these training sessions to guide teachers through the Oak resources and help them translate the curriculum into confident classroom practice. Our training focuses on the practical use of the Oak materials, such as how to plan sequences of lessons, integrate slide decks and quizzes effectively, and adapt recipes and activities to different contexts. A key part of this work has been helping teachers audit their existing knowledge and skills, set SMART goals for CPD, and reflect on curriculum intent and implementation strategies.
Training also emphasises making the food curriculum accessible and manageable. We explore ways to plan for practical cooking sessions, handle allergies and dietary needs, and integrate food and nutrition education into wider subject areas. By supporting teachers in this way, the aim is to ensure that food education is more than a set of lessons - it becomes a meaningful, engaging, and lifelong learning experience for pupils.
The development of the Oak Cooking and nutrition curriculum, and the accompanying professional development, represents a major step forward in UK food education. By providing high-quality, free, and comprehensive resources for teaching pupils aged 5-14 years, paired with supportive training, the British Nutrition Foundation and Oak National Academy are empowering schools and their teachers to deliver food education that is inspiring, inclusive, and effective.
Links
BNF ‘Oak – Food curriculum to classroom’ (CPD, training videos and curriculum support) https://foodafactoflife.org.uk/professional-development/oak-food-curriculum-to-classroom/
Primary KS1-2: https://www.thenational.academy/teachers/curriculum/cooking-nutrition-primary/units
Secondary KS3: https://www.thenational.academy/teachers/curriculum/cooking-nutrition-secondary/units
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