In the Kitchens
Alongside our regular Food Technology lessons, where students have been continuing to work through their curriculum, our kitchens have also been a hive of activity with a range of exciting extracurricular learning experiences.
Our Year 10 Food Technology students, for example, have been exploring the function of yeast through the very important scientific process of making cinnamon scrolls! Because sometimes the best way to understand science is to eat the evidence.
When our Paddock to Plate students aren't busy in the kitchen garden growing and harvesting produce, they have been spending time in the kitchen developing practical cooking skills and learning to prepare simple lunches, desserts and snacks. This term, students have made apple crumbles, with our Year 8 students particularly grateful to Hudson for bringing in some of his homegrown rhubarb. They have also made teriyaki chicken and tuna sushi, along with healthier oat and chocolate chip cookies.
These experiences provide our students with genuine life skills and opportunities to develop confidence and independence in the kitchen. But sometimes it is the things students say that remind us just how important these experiences can be. This week, one of our Year 7 Paddock to Plate students beautifully summed up why they enjoy cooking, saying:
"I like cooking because it makes me happy and bad emotions go away. It brings me joy."
That is exactly what we hope our kitchen spaces can provide: opportunities to learn, create, connect and experience the joy that comes from making something yourself.
We have also been fortunate to offer a First Nations cooking experience, where students explored native Australian ingredients while preparing kangaroo sausage rolls and homemade bush tomato chutney. This provided students with an opportunity to learn about ingredients that may not commonly feature in everyday cooking, while recognising their deep cultural connections to Country and the land on which we live.
This learning is also being extended beyond the kitchen, with our school bush tucker garden now growing a range of Indigenous herbs and spices. As these plants grow, they will provide even more opportunities for students to harvest, cook with and learn about native ingredients, helping us to continue embedding First Nations perspectives and connections to Country throughout our Food Technology and Paddock to Plate programs.
Our kitchens are becoming much more than places where students learn to follow a recipe. They are spaces where students are developing independence, confidence, creativity, practical life skills, cultural understanding and connection.
