School Food Trust Training 

The School Food Trust has held training at the academy.

Technology teachers Mrs Norris and Mrs Maddison took part in the session, centred around food clubs for 14-19 year olds and community events.

The organisers were keen to use Arnold Hill and were impressed with the food rooms and conference facilities in T23.

Mrs Norris explained how the training would benefit students: “We are going to run a programme in June to prepare year 12s for uni. In the autumn term we want to run this again with the new year 12s, run by some of the previous group who will pass their skills on.”

There are also plans for a cookery event during Olympic week and demonstrations at other school events.

After School Cooking

Five year 7 boys have been making tasty treats at the after school food club.

Joshua Mageria, Finley Heywood, George Montgomery, Omari Marston and Harry Sherwin have been attending the weekly sessions hosted by Mrs Norris and Ms Comar.

They have made a variety of sweet and savoury products including these oat, sultana and orange cookies. Delicious!

Cadbury World

Fifty GCSE Food and BTEC Hospitality students learnt about production and marketing techniques during a fun-filled day at Cadbury World.

Students had a talk from a member of Cadbury’s development department, learning about how focus has shifted towards a “better for you” policy and a reduction in calorie and fat content.

They looked at Cadbury’s branding through its history and learnt how the brand became a global phenomenon.

The group then learnt how to use a piping bag to write in chocolate, before finishing in the shop with the all-important chocolate purchases!

Cook for the Queen

Mrs Norris’ year 10 food group are entering a competition to create a menu to be served for the Queen at Buckingham palace!

The task is to create a menu which represents the ingredients and dishes of our region.

The class cooked their entries this week, and the best 8 will be selected to enter the competition.

Starpack

The Schools Starpack Packaging Design Awards are designed to increase understanding of the uses of packaging and also to encourage students to consider a career in the exciting world of consumer packaging design.

The school awards, now in their 13th year, form part of an annual awards programme. Gifted and talented pupils identified by their Design and Technology teachers have been invited to attend after school session starting in January 2012 with the competition being entered in March 2012.

Clothes Show Live

Key stage 4 and 5 textiles students visited the clothes show live in Birmingham last term. This was a great opportunity to get a taste for the fashion industry, with catwalk shows, a vintage fashion fair and textiles workshops just some of the things on offer.

The Write Stuff

Pupils studying for GCSE Food Technology in year 10 with Mrs Norris have entered a national food writing competition – we are waiting to hear if we have been successful!

Students had to write a letter addressed to a celebrity, a family member, a politician or anyone else they could think of, and let them know of their passion for food.

There will be one winner in each age category. First prize is the unique experience of a visit to the O2 Arena as the guest of Chartwells in 2012 for an exciting event. There will also be two runners up from each age group winning £50 worth of book vouchers each. The prize winners will be informed through their school.

FutureChef 2012 Local Final

After winning the school heat, year 10 student Katie Corah represented the school in the local final of FutureChef. The final was based in the catering kitchens at New College Nottingham, where seven other pupils from schools around Nottinghamshire competed to go through to the next stage. 

Students had to prepare and cook a hot main course along with a dessert in an hour and a half, within a budget of £6. Katie made a lasagne with side salad followed by chocolate profiteroles. It was a very closely fought contest and the judges deliberated for quite some time. 

Katie eventually came a very close third and the judges said her profiteroles were “perfect - completely faultless” and that she had been very organised - she was finished ahead of time and completely tidied up. They recommended her to enter again next year and were very encouraging.

Pre-School Party

Last term our child development students held a party for pre-school children. 

Like all good children's parties there was a round of pass the parcel, and the students also helped the little ones with art activities. 

This was a great opportunity for the pupils, allowing them to apply some of what they have learnt and become more confident interacting with young children. Many of them will have chosen to study this course because they are interested in working with children in the future, so this was valuable experience.

Thank you to the parents for bringing their children along, and well done to our students who were all very responsible and mature.

FutureChef 2012

The following students took part in the school heat of FutureChef 2012 held after school last term:

Bryony Gilbert
Elliot Willmington-Holmes
Timothy Brooks
Katie Corah
Isobelle Baxter.