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Home Economics/Food

Cookery is very popular at Leweston and a particularly essential life skill needed by girls in a boarding environment. Practical lessons are included in the core curriculum and are compulsory for Years 7, 8 and 9, where girls learn the basic skills they need to be able to cook. AQA Food and Nutrition GCSE is offered to Years 10 and 11, for those girls wanting to gain more advanced cooking skills and have a sound understanding of the basics of nutrition. Girls in Year 13 attend themed cooking sessions, where they learn to cook balanced, healthy, economic meals to prepare them for life after Leweston.

There are many opportunities to enjoy and participate in cookery at Leweston either through lessons, clubs or extra curricular activities. Clubs regularly offered are Cookery Club, Sugar-craft, Competitive Cookery, Herbal and Therapeutic Nutrition and Make and Eat Your Own Beauty Products. There is also an extremely popular Prep School Cookery Club.

October 2010 saw the launch of the prestigious Leiths Basic Certificate in Food and Wine, which is run as an after school activity for year 12 pupils. Leweston is one of only 11 schools in England to offer this 44 week course. The Basic Certificate is a professional practical and theory cookery course, with the primary aim being to give the students a vital life skill for independent living in addition to opening up areas of employment.

Food is always a popular choice for celebrations and events and we try to incorporate as many requests from the girls, as we can possibly fit into the calendar. Each year we celebrate Chinese New Year with a party organized and cooked by the Chinese boarders. They plan their celebration menu, organise shopping, spend a whole day cooking and preparing the meal, which they serve to and share with invited members of staff and girls. The event is a great experience and a lot of fun for both the international students and their friends. May Day is celebrated with the boarders cooking foods from a range of European countries, which they then share with invited guests. For the Mexican Day of the Dead festival, the boarders make sugar skulls and decorate them with the names of their friends, as they would at home in Mexico. Photos of some of these events can be viewed in the archive.

The girls are encouraged to enter cookery competitions to develop their skills and gain confidence in their ability. For three years running Leweston pupils have won a place at the Regional final of the QSM Beef Mince Young Chef Challenge. Saturday Morning Kitchen celebrity chef James Martin judges this national competition and only 40 pupils are selected to cook for him. The annual Rotary Club Young Chef competition is always a popular challenge and for the last two years Leweston pupils have achieved places in the semi finals. Girls are busy practicing their entries for the 2011 competition. A lot of effort is put in by the students, from which they achieve great success and have lots of fun.

Parents from both Prep and Senior School were invited to join a parents’ sugar-craft workshop and enjoyed a day of cake baking and decorating. Pupils enjoyed two one day workshops of cupcakes and cookies during the February holiday, where pupils from the Prep and Senior school baked and decorated cupcakes and cookies, as well as having time to prepare and cook their own lunch.