Subject Content:

BTEC First Extended Certificate in Sport: learners have opportunities to develop personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTS); develop functional skills

Project Summary:

This project is structured around the criteria of the BTEC First Certificate in Sport.  The students all already play or are involved in sport and fitness at a high level and are planning careers in sport and fitness.  The aim is to develop their knowledge of nutrition by examining different diets:  vegetarian, vegan, paleolithic, Mediterranean and pescatarian.  The entry event involved a series of four cookery sessions at the Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food at the Beacon of Light in Sunderland, where they made increasingly more complex recipes and learnt a variety of cooking skills.  They then met with five people following the five diets, and after a “client consultation” devised meal plans and recipe cards for them.  As a final showcase, the students planned and cooked a meal in the college refectory, and the winners of a public vote had their meal on sale in the refectory for a day.

Skills Development:

• Developing social and cultural capital
• Developing functional and life skills
• Working independently and in a group
• Communicating with external visitors in a client consultation
• Creating project resources (recipe cards and a meal plan) and a final product (a meal to be sold in the college refectory)

Cultural Capital:

The project launch event involved an initial visit to the Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food at the Beacon of Light in Sunderland.  This is run by the Foundation of Light, and students were introduced to a professional style kitchen, and the concept of developing cooking skills that they could take with them into their lives as well as thinking about nutrition and the impact food has on their bodies and their fitness.  In the subsequent three sessions, students cooked progressively more complex recipes from different cuisines.  They were encouraged to practice the recipes at home for their families and adapt them to fit their lives and tastes.