Food and Nutrition

FOOD PREPARATION AND NUTRITION (GCSE)

This course will foster a love of developing food. It is a lovely mix of practical and theory lessons. Students are taught to foster a ‘What if…?’ approach to food, considering a recipe as a starting point not an end point. The course leads students to question and adapt standard recipes, learning food preparation and cooking skills, but then adapting recipes to be healthier, richer, more tasty, for a specific target audience, for a dietary requirement, to be better for the environment or vegetarian for example. This approach nurtures creativity within food.

 
EXAMINATION BOARD -  AQA 

SPECIFICATION CODE - 8585 
 

CURRICULUM CONTENT 

It is a 2-year GCSE course where students learn food preparation skills, the theory of nutrition for health, the science behind cooking, including functional and chemical properties of food, food safety, sociology including food choice, cultural trends and influences, marketing, food mass production and sensory evaluation. They learn through both theory and practice with practical lessons totalling approximately half the curriculum time. Assessment is carried out over 3 units.  

 ASSESSMENT

Unit 1 - NEA1 – Scientific investigation Sept to Christmas of final year 

• Research ingredients.
• Plan investigation to test chemical and physical properties of ingredients and methods to a specific brief
• Undertake investigations
• Observe, Analyse and Evaluate outcomes of investigations 
• Conclude investigation in a 1500 to 2000-word report.

Unit 2 - NEA2 – Food preparation module with coursework Christmas to Easter of year 2 

• Includes researching a select target audience.
• Teaches students to use both primary and secondary research.
• Allows creativity.
• Includes practical skills testing to develop new recipes
• Undertake a 3 hour practical exam where students make 3 meals plus accompaniments, under exam conditions to showcase their research skills, planning skills, cooking skills and presentation skills. 

Unit 3 – Written examination paper Summer of year 2 

• Written exam Summer term in year 2 of the course. The exam covers all aspects of theory learned over the 2-year course. 

EXTRA-CURRICULAR OPPORTUNITIES 

 
Students have the opportunity to join the SJNGC catering group to cater various events in the school calendar. This is a practical opportunity allowing the students to fully experience the stress of real-life catering to a deadline with real customers. It also allows the students to hone skills for uniformity in their cooking, learn presentation skills, work as part of a large team and manage time pressures.  

Students are also offered the opportunity to set up their own businesses under the 10X Young Enterprise scheme. This is a scheme where students create their own brand, product and business plan with a start up budget of £10. They then have 6 weeks to turn their £10 budget into profit. This opportunity enables the students to expand on the skills learned in lessons and through the SJNGC catering club. They learn marketing, making, packaging, presentation, money management, profit and loss forecasting, advertising, food hygiene regulations and more. It is fun, rewarding and helps to create food entrepreneurs! 

PROGRESSION 

The GCSE food preparation and nutrition course allows students to gain jobs in the catering industry. It can also be the gateway for A levels, NVQs, BTech National qualifications, apprenticeships and access courses in food to gain entry onto university courses.  It also allows students to gain an advantage in the workplace if wanting to gain employment straight from college in catering.