Primary School Cooking in 2024/25!

It’s a new academic year and here at Classroom Kitchen, we just can’t wait to get started. We’re really looking forward to getting back to running our workshops in our primary school settings. So, looking ahead at primary school cooking in 2024-25, what are we hoping to achieve this year and what are we looking forward to:

We’ve already got a lot of fantastic primary schools across the North West and Yorkshire, signed up to our weekly cooking curriculum sessions for their KS1 and KS2 classes. Excitingly, we have an updated curriculum for 2024-25. Some new recipes have been introduced as well as a few of our older recipes, getting a fresh new look. Regardless, our skill based curriculum remains the same in it’s promise to providing children with real-life skills to take away with them.

This year, we’re launching our brand-new EYFS curriculum. Designed by our EYFS specialist, Jenna, this new curriculum taps supports EYFS settings with fun, story-based cooking workshops, filled with skills from the Early Learning Goals framework. Our EYFS curriculum sessions are happening all across the North West and Yorkshire with options on having a consecutive block of sessions or one each term/half term.

For many years, we’ve had an online curriculum available for primary schools around the UK. Launched during the Covid pandemic, Classroom Kitchen Online, provides schools with video-led cookery sessions, lesson plans, send home recipes and CPD for teachers. This year, we’re transferring the service to our new brand: Play. Pause. Teach.

Play. Pause. Teach. is a new edtech for schools focussed on providing support and great lessons in various foundation subjects. Something that I always found difficult teaching, was delivering the wealth of the primary curriculum at such a high, consistent standard. As a primary teacher, you’re expected to know a lot and be confident teaching… a lot! Play. Pause. Teach. hopes to support schools and primary teachers in the delivery of subjects which they may not feel as confident in.

The new Play. Pause. Teach. website will launch this October with our Cooking and Nutrition curriculum. Over the next few years, we’ll see the expansion into various other curriculum areas.

After the success of our Classroom Kitchen Cook Off, an online cooking competition for primary schools, last year, we decided to trial an in-person event for the Pontefract Academies Trust. It was a great afternoon and one that we thoroughly enjoyed. Each school within the trust sent down a team of pupils to participate in the cooking competition. They made a variety of delicious meals and at the end of the afternoon, one team was crowned the winner.

This year, we hope to further develop these competitions, running more with academy trusts and clusters of local primary schools. This is one that we may even take on the road to further locations around the UK. If you believe that this is something in which we could organise with your school and local cluster, please get in touch!

With Labour now in power and with their heavy focus on real life Sskills within the curriculum, we’re hoping to raise awareness to the service in which we offer. Over the next few years we imagine that Labour will drive the educational focus across to subjects such as cooking and nutrition. We want to get schools ready for this. Our current family of primary schools are already accessing cooking sessions in their settings and are fully prepared for the proposed curriculum changes. If you’d like to get ahead and start discussing how we can help your school, get in touch and we’ll look to help as best we can!

This week’s blog was written by our company founder… James Deveney!