About the course

Food Technology is taught to Key Stage 4 students once a week and they follow the BTEC Level 1/2 Award in Home Cooking Skills. During the course, students will develop:

• their knowledge, understanding and confidence to cook meals at home
• an understanding of how to economise when planning a meal
• an ability to transfer skills learned to different recipes
• an ability to inspire others by transferring that knowledge.

This course of study provides students with valuable life skills and prepares them for further courses in food or catering. 

What will students learn? 

BTEC Home Cooking Skills Level 1 – students will learn to:

• select and prepare ingredients for a recipe
• use cooking skills when following a recipe
• demonstrate food safety and hygiene throughout the preparation and cooking process
• reflect on their own learning about the value of gaining cooking skills
• identify ways to pass on information about home cooking.

BTEC Home Cooking Skills Level 2 – students will learn to:

• plan a nutritious two-course meal
• select and prepare ingredients for a nutritious two-course meal
• use cooking skills when following the recipes
• demonstrate food safety and hygiene throughout the preparation and cooking process
• apply presentation skills when serving the meal
• explain ways to economise when cooking at home
• identify ways that information about cooking meals at home from scratch has been passed on to others.

Students will continue to regularly build on basic cooking skills, such as chopping, slicing, bringing food to a simmer, to help reinforce their understanding and confidence in cooking at home.

Click here to view our KS4 Food Technology curriculum map.

Additional support

Students have the opportunity to receive extra support with written work for BTEC during lunchtimes or after school.

Extra-curricular opportunities

Students have the opportunity to choose food skills as an option from their curriculum offer on a Friday afternoon.

Student assessment

• Students’ written work is marked regularly, and they receive verbal feedback during lessons.
• A work tracker is used to easily identify the work each student has completed. To ensure students are making progress, work is marked regularly following the NRC marking policy. Interventions are put in place to help students catch up with missed work, for example, one-to-one support is offered during tutor time, lunchtime or after school.