The Times,
London, UK
18 March, 2006


What's the recipe for healthy little eaters? Teach them to cook at school, says Hilly Janes

Greedy little Goldilocks was almost certainly put off porridge for life after her encounter with the three bears, but it’s the opposite story for the four to five-year-olds at Hanover Primary School, North London. The three bears has been one of their topics this term and not only have the pupils learnt the tale and drawn the bears, they’ve made the porridge and eaten it in the school’s spanking new curriculum kitchen. It has been installed as part of Hanover ’s drive — supported by parents, including myself — to increase the pupils’ experience and enjoyment of healthy, fresh food in the hope that this will encourage better food choices at school and at home.

Rachel Parkinson, their teacher, has taught them the tale in which daddy bear’s porridge is too salty, mummy bear’s too sweet and baby bear’s just right. And those are the ways they make the porridge. Any parent knows how difficult it can be to get small children to try new foods, let alone when they know it won’t taste nice. But peer pressure prevails; all the children try the three versions and there is much theatrical pulling of faces and spitting into the bin of the overly salty and sweet spoonfuls. “That salty one was very not yummy!” exclaims Jad. It’s a brilliant strategy for putting five-year-olds off very salty and sweet foods — and pointing out that “with a little drizzle of natural honey” it’s just right.

As the children in Pink Class work in the kitchen, it is striking to see how much more they are learning than just to enjoy one of the healthiest breakfasts possible — porridge, with its slow-release carbohydrates and soluble fibre. Samira measures out the oats into a cup, Lauren fetches the milk from the fridge and Cali pours it; tasks that many five-year-olds would not be trusted with at home. Parkinson constantly prompts them with questions about maths, nature, science: “Is the cup three- quarters full yet? Where does milk come from?” As the porridge comes to the boil — the children are seated safely at some distance — she explains that the steam shows it is boiling and, therefore, dangerously hot.

Even that normally off-limits subject beloved of five-year-olds gets a look-in; Parkinson is concerned about the level of constipation among the children and encourages them to drink water in class, at lunchtime and during the porridge session. “It stops you doing small hard poos,” she says.

Parkinson is evangelical about the new kitchen, for which the equipment was donated by MFI, Hotpoint and Topps Tiles. “The children are getting so much out of it,” she enthuses. “Of about 20 children in the class only about three had tried porridge, and only three or so decided they didn't like it.” Given that 40 per cent of Hanover’s 300 pupils are from non-white British ethnic backgrounds and more than a third are entitled to free school meals, the lack of exposure may not be surprising.

But this is Islington, where diversity is celebrated and the emphasis is on inclusion. Five thousand pounds towards the kitchen has been contributed to the project by the Cripplegate Foundation, a local charity that supports welfare and community projects. To mark Chinese new year, Pink Class made a stir-fry incorporating 12 vegetables and even tried eating with chopsticks. Like the porridge, stir-fry was new to most of them, but the majority enjoyed it. Lack of exposure to freshly made food is universal, it seems. “I don’t think many of the parents cook, let alone the kids,” Parkinson says.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that the children in foundation stage, which Parkinson heads, with its emphasis on learning basic practical and social skills, are getting so much out of the kitchen. And she is an experienced, confident teacher and an enthusiastic cook, who is raising her own young children on organic food.

This isn’t true of all primary teachers. Like many parents, they may have been raised on freezer-to-microwave and takeaway meals. They receive no training in practical food skills, and while they are expected to cover the essential life skill of healthy eating as part of the curriculum, it’s precious little compared to the emphasis on more academic subjects.

Paul Jarman, the head at Hanover and a driving force behind the school’s food campaign, is realistic about the challenges involved with making the most of the kitchen. “It’s one thing to have the vision, but when it comes down to the practicalities it’s a different story,” he says. “If you aren’t a confident cook you have to learn a new set of basic skills before you involve the children.”

Some of the teachers are, understandably, anxious about sharp knives and hot stoves. And while teachers lower down the school have classroom teaching assistants, those higher up are on their own. It’s only practical to use the kitchen with small groups. “If I take a third of the class into the kitchen, what do I do with the rest?” asks one teacher. “And if we leave something baking in the oven, what do I do about getting it out later in the middle of another lesson?” At Catherington Infant School, in Hampshire, they have some of the answers. As a rural school with only 90 pupils, aged 5 to 7, it’s very different from Hanover, but the commitment is impressive. The school’s curriculum kitchen was purpose-built and the head teacher, Melanie Williams, says: “All the children use the kitchen and cover a range of healthy-eating options — pizzas with wholesome toppings, jacket potatoes with different fillings; they design and make their own sandwiches. We have a Teddy Bears’ picnic in the summer, which they make.”

Williams notes how the kitchen, funded out of the school’s design and technology budget, supports other areas of the curriculum: “Science experiments are done there, such as recording a change of state — they make bread and jelly to observe permanent and reversible change. It ticks a lot of boxes across the curriculum. The children are in there five, six times a term. They are so interested and they love it." The answer to the staffing problem has been provided by parents. “We train and police-check them,” says Williams. “One of our best supporters is a grandmother whose children left the school many years ago. We have working mums who take time off to come in when they can. Part-timers will commit themselves to coming in, say, one afternoon a week.”

How many primary and infants schools in Britain enjoy such a valuable facility? The answer is, nobody knows. The Government has become so shockingly ignorant about the provision of food in schools that the Education Minister Ruth Kelly has asked for a national audit of how much is being spent on meal ingredients, how they are provided, the percentage of children buying them and whether the meals are hot or cold.

Back at Hanover, the curriculum project is being watched with interest by the local education authority. Bound into a catering contract with Scolarest — they of the turkey twizzlers, and butt of Jamie Oliver’s scalding criticism — the authority is under pressure from teachers and parents alike to improve matters. It is also backing a breakfast club in Hanover’s kitchen, from which wafts a comforting smell of hot toast each morning. And the local primary care trust (PCT) is offering training to help teachers to embed healthy eating into the curriculum as part of its drive to tackle rising obesity levels.

“Children who cook at school are more likely to cook at home, too, and that’s all part of learning to eat well,” says Nathalie Russell, the PCT’s health improvement specialist for schools.

The fledgeling School Food Trust, a well intentioned but toothless advisory panel, instigated by Kelly, is also looking into integrating cooking into its plans for healthier food. Kelly has asked the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) to ensure that practical food skills, as well as knowledge of diet and nutrition, are given stronger emphasis at secondary level. Arguably, tackling teenage eating habits is too late, and, in any case, the QCA is unlikely to implement changes until

2008 at the earliest. Getting them while they’re young would be a better strategy, yet there are no plans to make any changes at primary level.

But perhaps the story of the three bears, Pink Class and the porridge should give Kelly food for thought. Learning to prepare and share good food, making subjects such as maths, science, history and geography an enjoyable, hands-on part of the school day, and social inclusion are all compelling reasons why the Education Minister should focus on primary schools. What better way to cook up a nation of healthy little eaters?



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspa...2089645,00.html

Wow, oatmeal and pizza. Awesome things to teach kids to cook. Really healthy.

If they are going to eat carbs, oatmeal (low glycemic, lots of soluble and insoluble fibre) and pizza (OK, wheat flour crust, but cheese and veg toppings), not to mention the stir-fry also described in the article, are a heck of a lot healthier than chips and fish fingers (fries and fish sticks to us North Americans), topped off with a Coke and chocolate bar. At least home cooked, relatively unprocessed food is a step in the right direction. An ultra low-carb diet such as Atkins is probably not necessary for most small children, as long as they're eating "real" food with no or very little sugar or processed carbs.

Actually, I think this is great. I don't think it's the emphasis on carbs or a particular food group. The gist I got from the article is to use whole foods rather than processed foods. Even if the children eats carbs, this is a whole lot better than microwaved processed foods! Just taking this kind of initiative and having desire to really teach children is so much better than nothing. I applaud this effort and wish they had something similar in my daughter's school.