Chil­dren love cook­ing and we at Friends’ School embrace their ambi­tions. As early as Year 5 pupils have regu­lar Food lessons in Senior school and continue into Year 9. A student is then able to opt to follow a GCSE course in this and then to continue to AS/A2. They can be guar­an­teed the oppor­tun­ity to cook a vari­ety of dishes that consider the import­ance of a balanced diet, the use of local and seasonal produce and the influ­ence of vari­ous cultures.
DT Food Tech­no­logy helps pupils under­stand the phys­ical, chem­ical, nutri­tional, biolo­gical and sens­ory prop­er­ties of food. Pupils are also made aware of the health and safety implic­a­tions of food handling.

In this depart­ment there is/are:

  • A fully equipped and modern food tech­no­logy room.
  • Three exper­i­enced teach­ers suppor­ted by an able technician.
  • Good use made of ICT and multimedia.
  • A chance for all pupils to study this subject until the end of Year 9 after which it becomes an optional GCSE for those in Years 10 and 11, and can be stud­ied at Advanced level in the sixth form.
  • Very popu­lar after school food clubs each week.

DT Food Tech­no­logy in Years 7, 8 and 9.

What is DT Food Tech­no­logy?
The curriculum in Design Tech­no­logy Food Tech­no­logy helps pupils to under­stand the phys­ical, chem­ical, nutri­tional, biolo­gical and sens­ory prop­er­ties of foods and how to exploit these prop­er­ties when design­ing and making food products. It is the process involved in the conver­sion of raw mater­i­als to edible food products includ­ing meals. It requires students to learn about mater­i­als, food safety and hygiene whilst examin­ing the processes, skills and tech­niques needed to make foods. In food tech­no­logy invest­ig­at­ive work is carried out to see how products are conceived, researched, developed, manu­fac­tured and marketed to meet the needs of the consumer.

What will your child study?

Year  7
This course consists of 2 x 5 week courses over the year.

The pupils begin the course by build­ing on the know­ledge gained in KS2, with an addi­tional discus­sion, “What is Food Tech­no­logy”. After a brief revi­sion of hygiene rules the students begin a unit “Learn­ing about products”. Weigh­ing and meas­ur­ing skills are rein­forced with the focus on the design of scones, with prac­tical tasks and product and sens­ory analysis. The next unit exam­ines the “Under­stand­ing of mater­i­als”, look­ing at the ‘balanced plate’, veget­ables and fruit and salads. The students have the oppor­tun­ity to exam­ine the vari­ety of fruit and veget­ables avail­able to them, the processing they may undergo and the ways in which they are prepared. They will make soup, pizza, fruit salads and savoury salads. Finally the students will complete their course with “Design­ing and making for your­self”. Here they will look at the design of snack foods, learn­ing about casings and fillings and work­ing towards model­ling their own snack.

Year  8
This course consists of two 5 week units.

Unit 1 is Make It!Bake It! where they will find out about the market locally for baked goods, find­ing out about baked good in differ­ent cultures . the role of fat, flour and rais­ing agents in baking. The students will prepare scones, Swiss roll, lemon drizzle cake, and shortbread.

The next unit is called ‘Meal Deal’ when they exam­ine the balan­cing of foods from differ­ent food groups. Using meat, fish eggs etc they will prepare home-made burgers, salmon fish cakes, chicken and asparagus pie. The course concludes with design­ing a healthy pasta dish for school lunch.

Cook­ing skills - meas­ur­ing, baking, mixing, boil­ing, sautéing, sauce making.

Year  9
Unit 1 is called ‘In a stew’ where the students will invest­ig­ate chilled foods e.g potato topped pies, casser­oles, stews, look­ing closely at the influ­ence of differ­ent cultures .  Risk assess­ment includ­ing safety and hygiene are high­lighted. The students will prepare Cottage pie, Chilli con carne, Lancashire hot pot and chicken curry. Unit 2 is the ‘Great Pudding Revival’ where they develop ideas around tradi­tional pudding recipes like Sticky Toffee Pudding, Pine­apple Upside Down Pudding and Bakewell tart. Incor­por­at­ing fruit into the puddings is examined.

Cook­ing skills – prepar­ing veget­ables, sautéing, sauce making pastry making, steam­ing, cream­ing, baking.

How will your child be assessed?
Some chil­dren will find an encour­aging word from the teacher most valu­able in signalling that their perform­ance is improv­ing, but formal assess­ment is set out below.

They will be assessed on their efforts in the organ­isa­tion and plan­ning of their making tasks.

The stages in the design process will be recor­ded in project work and this will be assessed at its conclusion.

For some pupils extra indi­vidual help is given to support their work in Food Tech­no­logy and this is extremely valuable.

Any area of special effort and improve­ment is recog­nised by the use of the School’s commend­a­tion system.

What activ­it­ies will your child take part in?
The most popu­lar part of this course is the prac­tical work. This can take the form of indi­vidual, group or class activ­it­ies, with product analysis, focused prac­tical tasks, sens­ory analysis or exper­i­mental sessions.

Students may visit compan­ies and retail­ers who are involved in the manu­fac­ture or market­ing of products.

Outside agen­cies will visit to supple­ment areas of the Food Tech­no­logy curriculum.

GCSE DT Food Technology

This is a Design and Tech­no­logy GCSE using food as the subject for design and making. Food tech­no­logy is the process involved in the conver­sion of raw mater­i­als into edible food products. Food tech­no­logy helps students to under­stand the phys­ical, chem­ical, nutri­tional, biolo­gical and sens­ory prop­er­ties of foods and how to exploit these prop­er­ties when design­ing and making food products.

Will I enjoy the course?
You will enjoy this course if you want to study a subject that:
Involves cook­ing food!
Is both prac­tical and tech­nical
Involves work­ing alone and within a group
Is relev­ant to the consumer soci­ety you live in
Encour­ages you to make decisions on adapt­ing recipes and designs
Devel­ops a full range of skills that will be useful in other subjects you study and in employment.

What about exams?
The assess­ments involve 2 units.

Unit 1 tests your know­ledge and under­stand­ing of Food Tech­no­logy and consists of a1½ hour writ­ten exam (40%). (Year 10 start­ing in Septem­ber 2010 will sit this exam at the end of Year 10)

Unit 2 is Creat­ive Design and Make Activ­it­ies which are controlled indi­vidual pieces of work carried out by the student based on prac­tical work (60%).

You will be expec­ted to produce a food product using a high stand­ard of ‘making’ with an accom­pa­ny­ing A3 design folder of around 15-20 pages. The course­work project is expec­ted to be produced within 40 hours.

Specific­a­tion:  Edex­cel Food Tech­no­logy 2FT01
Click here to down­load the current specific­a­tion for this GCSE course.

AS and A Level DT Food Technology

Food is a major employer in the UK - a highly compet­it­ive and chal­len­ging industry offer­ing a wealth of employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies. The intro­duc­tion of new Advanced level courses provides a valu­able path­way to further and higher educa­tion for those who wish to study the subject at this level.

The Advanced level courses aim to develop appro­pri­ate skills in these areas, includ­ing a wide range of prac­tical skills in hand­ling and work­ing with food, apply­ing design think­ing and manu­fac­tur­ing processes.

At AS you will study
Carbo­hydrates, Fats, proteins - Food Science
Addit­ives
Indus­trial and commer­cial prac­tice – in prepar­a­tion of food
Under­ly­ing micro­bi­o­lo­gical prin­ciples
Preser­va­tion processes
Good manu­fac­tur­ing practice

and you will be expec­ted to:
Cook each week, and be creat­ive
Work in a small group
Study inde­pend­ently
Design work
Make visits
Carry out exper­i­mental work
Show an abil­ity to test and eval­u­ate their work
Produce high qual­ity products that meet the require­ment of a design brief

Specific­a­tion = Edex­cel D&T Food Tech­no­logy AS 8FT01 A2 9FT01
Click here to down­load the current specific­a­tion for this A level course.

AS - Units of assess­ment
There are 2 units of assess­ment, one intern­ally assessed, which is a course­work project (60%) and one unit which is extern­ally assessed by a 1.5 hour writ­ten exam­in­a­tion (40%).

Unit 1 (6FT01) Coursework- Port­fo­lio of Creat­ive Skills - 60% of AS (30% of A level)
In this unit students are given the oppor­tun­ity to develop their creat­ive, tech­nical and prac­tical skills through a series of product invest­ig­a­tion, design and manu­fac­tur­ing activ­it­ies. Students will produce one port­fo­lio with 3 distinct sections which demon­strate their creativ­ity and flair when invest­ig­at­ing, design­ing and making food.

The course­work is marked intern­ally but moder­ated by the Edexcel.

Unit 2 (6FT02) Design and Tech­no­logy in Prac­tice - 40% of AS (20% of A level)
In this unit students will develop a know­ledge and under­stand­ing of a wide range of mater­i­als, compon­ents, addit­ives and processes used in the design and produc­tion of food products.

It is import­ant for students to learn about the main food compon­ents, their phys­ical nature and work­ing prop­er­ties. Simil­arly, students need to know the vari­ous stages in prepar­ing foods for large-scale produc­tion. They must also learn the funda­mental prin­ciples under­pin­ning food preser­va­tion and the vari­ous tech­niques involved.

Qual­ity of food is of major import­ance to the manu­fac­turer and consumer. It is there­fore essen­tial for students to under­stand the prin­ciples of food qual­ity control and good manu­fac­tur­ing prac­tice in the food industry.

This unit will be assessed by a 1.5 hours writ­ten paper. The paper will be a ques­tion and answer book­let, consist­ing of short-answer and extended-writing type ques­tions, all of which are compulsory.

A2 - Units of assessment

There are 2 units of assess­ment, one intern­ally assessed, which is a course­work project (30%) and one unit which is extern­ally assessed by a 2 hour writ­ten exam­in­a­tion (20%).

A2 Unit 3 (6FT03): Food Products, Nutri­tion and Product Devel­op­ment (20% of A level)
In this unit students will develop a know­ledge and under­stand­ing of a range of food commod­it­ies, aspects of nutri­tion, product devel­op­ment and food innovation.

It is essen­tial for students to have a compre­hens­ive know­ledge of the main food commod­it­ies, their compos­i­tion, basic processing and typical spoil­age patterns.

A sound know­ledge of nutri­tion and its influ­ence on the diet, contem­por­ary life­style issues and new product devel­op­ment is partic­u­larly import­ant for food technologists.

Simil­arly, consumer beha­viour, demo­graph­ics, modern life­styles and sustain­able issues have an influ­ence on new product devel­op­ment. It is also import­ant for students to be aware of the influ­ence of new tech­no­lo­gies and mater­i­als on the devel­op­ment of new food products.

Assess­ment is by a 2 hour exam­in­a­tion paper set and marked by Edex­cel.
The paper will be a ques­tion and answer book­let, consist­ing of short-answer and extended-writing type ques­tions, all of which are compulsory.

A2 Unit 4 (6FT04): Commer­cial Design - Course­work (30% of A level)
In this unit students are given the oppor­tun­ity to apply the skills they have acquired and developed through­out this course of study, to design and make a food product of their choice.

In order to reach high attain­ment levels, students must adopt a commer­cial design approach to their work, reflect­ing how a profes­sional might deal with a design prob­lem and its resolution.

The choice of design prob­lem should have a real commer­cial use, in that it should be useful to a wider range of users beyond an indi­vidual, unless it has been specific­ally commis­sioned as a ‘one-off’. The design prob­lem should provide oppor­tun­it­ies for a client or user-group to have input into decision making at vari­ous stages of the design and make process.

A client or user-group is defined as any third party iden­ti­fied by a student, that is referred to and who can give informed crit­ical feed­back at vari­ous stages through­out the design process. Clients and user-groups do not need to be special­ists or experts; they can be drawn from any relev­ant group of people and may include other students, friends or family members.

A key feature of this unit is that students consider issues related to sustain­ab­il­ity and the impact their product may have on the envir­on­ment. A student may choose to design and make a sustain­able product, but if they do not, they should still consider the issues of sustain­ab­il­ity at relev­ant points in their design­ing and making activities.

Sustain­able issues include mater­i­als, components/ingredients produc­tion and selec­tion, manu­fac­tur­ing processes, use of the product and its disposal/recycling.

This unit is intern­ally set and marked by the centre and extern­ally moder­ated by Edex­cel. Students are given the oppor­tun­ity to design and make a product of their choice. This unit results in the devel­op­ment of an appro­pri­ate product suppor­ted by a design folder.