Bedford Academy creates environment where staff and students thrive

Bedford Academy is richly diverse school with around 40% of its students whose first language is not English.

Whilst it is in an area of chronic deprivation, its ethos, along with outstanding buildings and facilities, creates an environment where both staff and students can thrive.

Bedford Academy puts a great deal of emphasis on providing consistent support, guidance and challenge for its students to help them become well-rounded, thoughtful and responsible members of the local and wider community.

It was partly this ethos that prompted them to work with Food etc.  Working with groups of their year 12 students, we were able to show them how to cook cheap and healthy meals from scratch as part of their PHSE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) education.

The aim was to encourage them not only to make healthier choices which would benefit their mental and physical health and finances in the short-term, but to continue to make better decisions around what they eat as they take up more and more independent lives for work or further study.

Each week around 40 students worked in small groups to prepare and share food together.

After the first session one of Bedford Academy tutor Charlotte Baker said:

“Yesterday was fab! The students have all been talking about it since which has been lovely. They loved how they were just allowed to get on and get a taste of having to fend for themselves. The other classes were jealous, so I know they are already looking forward to their turn.

“I think the students really liked being able to try two different things and come together and share, so if it’s possible could we do something similar in terms of half the class completes one dish and the other half does another.”

So that’s what we did!

They made a variety of dishes: fajitas, tortilla wraps, soda bread and soup. While the food was at the heart of what they did, working together and finding ways to share the tasks and get it all done in under an hour was also part of the challenge and the fun.

Another teacher emailed at the end of the course to say:

“The sessions were so useful and the students got a lot out of it. They were all really engaged and it was amazing to see them learning life skills that they will really need. Some of them had never cooked before so this was very important for them.”

We asked students who attended our cookery workshops to complete our feedback survey.

Results included:

Approximately 50% said they had learned how to cook more cheaply, new recipes and how to use different ingredients.

The element of the course they enjoyed most was spending time with other people, followed by learning to cook more varied meals