Food tech evaluation help please

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southbucks3
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Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:59 am

Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by southbucks3 »

Baby tinkers will lie to you if the one you helped with gets less..if she wants peace and harmony that is. Well done that girl.

Ds1 has sort of Got to the bottom of his plummeting dt grades too.

Turns out one dt teacher liked them to use lots of colours for writing instructions and diagrams, the new one hates it, wants everything spot on accurate too. Ds1 loves using colours so persisted and can be a bit sloppy with his mm :roll: I have given him a lesson on brown nosing particular teachers just for purposes of grades, I also fessed up that I hated coloured writing and diagrams, and re-iterated that 1mm on plan could be 1m on build. He had a short sulk, but has moved back to boring old black ink.

Funny how it is the practical subjects that are hardest to suss out exactly what each teacher wants. Art is another one, ds 1 learnt about hockney in year 7, I believe I supported him well, I am a big hockney fan :wink: he had to do a collage of his pictures, we went through lots of my books, and the internet and ds1 made a great attempt at the work, I believe. She ringed one of the pictures and said it was not a hockney. But but but...I mumbled in disgust...I never pursued it though, we had the high ground!
Last edited by southbucks3 on Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tinkers
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Location: Reading

Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by Tinkers »

Don't even get me started on art...
KB
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Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by KB »

Frankly unless DC is going to carry such subjects to exam level I really wouldn't bother. Mine were expected to put in a reasonable amount of time/effort but there are more important things in life.
The cookery lessons that Ofsted made them introduce at the boys GS were mostly an opportunity for 'banter'. One or two results were probably edible but I was never convinced on the hygiene front :)
kittymum
Posts: 925
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:42 pm

Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by kittymum »

Tinkers wrote:Don't even get me started on art...
I've just returned from a trip to Hobbycraft and somehow have been conned into spending nearly £60 on frames and mounts for DS's photography project (don't ask!) - if school give it anything other then glowing reviews I think I'll cry!
kittymum
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Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:42 pm

Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by kittymum »

KB wrote:Frankly unless DC is going to carry such subjects to exam level I really wouldn't bother. Mine were expected to put in a reasonable amount of time/effort but there are more important things in life.
The cookery lessons that Ofsted made them introduce at the boys GS were mostly an opportunity for 'banter'. One or two results were probably edible but I was never convinced on the hygiene front :)
I genuinely think that cooking is a really useful thing to teach children - if they can budget and cook a variety of cheap nutritious meals then it's good for them and the health of the nation as a whole. Sadly KS3 & 4 cooking is all Food Technology now with two much concentration on mass manufacturing and designing ready meals and such and too little concentration on actual cooking. Also the design tasks for gcse are things like luxury deserts / sports nutrition etc rather then learning how to cook. You can get a very good grade in Food Tech without being able to make pastry / bake a cake / make a white sauce etc which is really sad.

I think we're selling young people short not equipping them with basic cooking skills. (Sorry for the rant but I've spent quite a lot of today in gcse Food Tech!)
Tinkers
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Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by Tinkers »

kittymum wrote:
KB wrote:Frankly unless DC is going to carry such subjects to exam level I really wouldn't bother. Mine were expected to put in a reasonable amount of time/effort but there are more important things in life.
The cookery lessons that Ofsted made them introduce at the boys GS were mostly an opportunity for 'banter'. One or two results were probably edible but I was never convinced on the hygiene front :)
I genuinely think that cooking is a really useful thing to teach children - if they can budget and cook a variety of cheap nutritious meals then it's good for them and the health of the nation as a whole. Sadly KS3 & 4 cooking is all Food Technology now with two much concentration on mass manufacturing and designing ready meals and such and too little concentration on actual cooking. Also the design tasks for gcse are things like luxury deserts / sports nutrition etc rather then learning how to cook. You can get a very good grade in Food Tech without being able to make pastry / bake a cake / make a white sauce etc which is really sad.

I think we're selling young people short not equipping them with basic cooking skills. (Sorry for the rant but I've spent quite a lot of today in gcse Food Tech!)

I have to agree strongly with this. My DD can and does cook. She cooked tea last night. (And this does not mean shoving a ready meal in the microwave) DH is away on business, he usually cooks. I'm a danger to myself and crockery in the kitchen. I know, DH knows it and even DD knows it, do while I'm very capable of cooking I leave it to one of them.


A couple of weeks ago she made DH a birthday cake using her hero Mary Berry's whole lemon cake recipe. I don't even go I to the kitchen to supervise. Heston is her other hero.
Food tech seems to have little to do with teaching children how to cook.

She was expecting to love food tech. She doesn't and I think that's sad.
southbucks3
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Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:59 am

Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by southbucks3 »

I am a firm believer in trying your very best in everything you do, even if your best is a bit cr*p and it is something you dislike doing at least you can hold your chin up high.

Ds1loves the cooking lessons at school, he has learnt that for me to eat it he has to make it again at home away from strangers boy germs and is getting much better and more efficient now. He is a whizz at flapjacks, and often makes them for him and his bruvs from his school recipe book. :D
Last edited by southbucks3 on Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:11 am, edited 2 times in total.
KB
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Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by KB »

DCs can all cook and even the boys can bake to a reasonable level but to me its a life skill not an exam subject.
None of mine did anything significant in that area at school but learned practical skills from pre school age with me and grandparents.

The theory that one should do one's best in everything is one I uphold but there are only so many hours in the day so we did take the attitude that full effort for the allotted homework time on Art etc was sufficient and any extra time was spent on core academic subjects.
I guess if they had otherwise been in front of TV screen it would have been different but we struggled with fitting everything in as it was.

I do think its a shame that at least in KS3 some subjects can't be studied for the fun of it rather than made into an academic exercise.
pheasantchick
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Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by pheasantchick »

Ds 2 made and his birthday cake last week. He loves baking, and I leave him to it. The only bit needs up with is the clearing up. 9 :P
Tinkers
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Location: Reading

Re: Food tech evaluation help please

Post by Tinkers »

DD has made us both tea again. Stir fried chicken with garlic, lime juice and soya sauce, with some peppers and pasta.

Lovely.

She is now doing something 'creative' with frozen fruit and chocolate drops. I think hers may even feature marshmallows.

I think she watches too many cookery programmes. :lol:

I loaded the dishwasher. I know my place.
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