New polling of parents and young people shows access to food education in England is fragmented, inconsistent and insufficient with fewer than half of young people receiving dedicated curriculum time, and with the food served in schools often misaligned with what young people are being taught about good food and nutrition. Nick Hughes is joined by Jenny Paxman, CEO of The School of Artisan Food, to explore why the provision of food education is so inconsistent, what are the benefits of high quality food education, and how good food education in schools can act as a gateway into a career in the food and hospitality industries for more young people.
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Transcript
Nick Hughes: Hello and welcome to the Small Print, a new podcast by Footprint Media Group. My name’s Nick Hughes, Footprint’s editorial director, and in each episode, we’ll take you on a journey beneath the headlines of recent developments impacting the hospitality and food service sector through our unique lens of environmental and social affairs. In today’s episode, we’re joined by Jenny Paxman, CEO of the School of Artisan Food, to discuss the topic of food education in schools. New polling of parents and young people shows access to food education in England is fragmented, inconsistent and insufficient. With fewer than half of young people receiving dedicated curriculum time, and with the food served in schools often misaligned with what young people are being taught about good food and nutrition, why is the provision of food education so inconsistent? What are the benefits of high quality food education? And can good food education in schools act as a gateway into a career in the food and hospitality industries for more young people? Jedi, thank you for joining us on the Small Print. Before we get into the details of your new piece of research, perhaps you can tell us a little about the School of Artisan Food and the Best Food Forward program.
Jenny Paxman: Oh, thanks, Nick. Absolutely. So, at the School of Artisan Food, we champion food education that’s transformative for people, for communities and for culture. And specifically, the Best Food Forward program exists to ensure that every young person has access to high quality curriculum embedded food education, not necessarily as like an optional enrichment activity, but more as an essential foundation for health, wellbeing and opportunity. So we advocate for an approach where children learn it, see it and live it, so that food education is taught in the classroom, reinforced across the school environment, and supported by a whole range of meaningful opportunities to put learning into practice.
Nick Hughes: So this week you’ve published some new research into experiences of food education among parents and young people. Why did you commission this survey by public first, and what were the key findings?
Jenny Paxman: So we commissioned the polling report, Hungry for Change, because we wanted to understand what the families of young people and what young people themselves experience and what they value when it comes to food education. And the findings were powerful, but concerning. Parents and pupils tend to overwhelmingly, whelmingly see that food skills are essential life skills. Yet fewer than half of the people that we surveyed aged 18, 11 to 18, received dedicated time for food education curriculum. And we found that the provision was declining sharply with age. Now, there is, of course, a cliff edge for most children at the end of Key Stage 3, where it is no longer compulsory for them to study food education as part of the curriculum. But we saw that There were stark inequalities because the children from lower income households and from state schools had far less access to sustained high quality food education. And for those from private schools, it was sustained Beyond Key Stage 3. More often than that was the case in state funded schools.
Nick Hughes: Let’s perhaps just clarify for listeners who might not be familiar with what schools are required to teach with regards to food education across Those key stages 1, 2, 3 and beyond. What does the curriculum require currently?
Jenny Paxman: So, in its current form, in England, cooking and nutrition is only statutory up to the end of Key Stage 3. So that would be children in the first few years of their secondary education. After the age of 14, the provision becomes discretionary for the school and optional for young people. Now, when we say discretionary for the school, we mean are they offering a GCSE that supports the development of cooking, nutrition knowledge and skills, or are they choosing not to offer that? And in terms of the optionality for young children, for young people, sorry, it’s to do with whether or not they select or opt into that formal qualification pathway. So this tends to lead to a sharp fall or a drop off in the number of young people receiving formal food education through school. Now, schools are also navigating a timetable that’s under immense pressure. We all hear about there not being enough hours to teach the core subjects. So without any kind of protected status or without leadership accountability, food learning is often squeezed out of the curriculum. And that’s why provision varies so widely between different regions, different income categories for households and different school types. So by key stage three, by key stage five, only 32% of our young people are receiving any kind of food teaching at all.
Nick Hughes: Yeah, that’s quite a stark figure, isn’t it? And like you say, the results showed some real differences linked to geography, income difference between independent and state schools. But equally clearly, within some of those lower income geographies, there will be schools investing in good food education. So, so what explains the difference in provision, the inconsistency in provision, and how might a typical young person experience food education in a school environment?
Jenny Paxman: So I think it’s important to highlight that the inconsistency is structural, not philosophical. It’s really clear through all of the work we’ve done, our first food education mapping report, and also hungry for change, that schools value food education, they just simply lack the consistent framework through which they can deliver it. And food education is therefore frequently deprioritized in favour of other life skills subjects such as digital literacy. And yet parents are ranking food skills alongside those very subjects in terms of its importance. So the issue is not the relevance, but perhaps the perception, I suppose, that food education is still seen as a nice to have rather than a foundational, nay, essential life skill for our young people. And perceptions are also biased by the public’s skewed views of the breadth and the potential value of food careers, which actually offers so many exciting, fast paced and important careers, from nutrition and dietetics right through to product development, food service or even food policy. So whilst parents rate cooking skills at the same level of importance as digital skills and time management, which we know are critical for children to thrive, 49% of parents were saying that food is not treated as a priority subject in schools. So reframing food as a core competency with scientific, cultural, economic and practical relevance is absolutely essential for it to be prioritized going forward.
Nick Hughes: You touched on some of the competing pressures on schools and clearly you’re a very passionate advocate for food education. I’m sure there will be passionate advocates for the need to devote more time to healthy relationships, for example, or safe use of technology or connecting with nature, you know, and there’s clearly a finite amount of time within the school day, so you’ve given a really nice elevator pitch there for investing more time in food education. Are there other barriers to schools providing that high quality, consistent food education versus focusing on other topics? You know, you obviously need access to facilities, equipment, particularly for hands on learning with food. Perhaps there are funding issues as well, or a lack of qualified teachers to teach food education. What are those sort of more other barriers that you’d identify?
Jenny Paxman: Now you’ve picked up on a really important thing there. Schools definitely want on the whole to do more food education, but they do face these very real barriers. And you mentioned the lack of facilities there, which is absolutely a structural barrier for many schools. But alongside that there’s a rising cost of ingredients, particularly if the schools are providing those ingredients or families can’t afford to provide those ingredients. And the insufficient training routes for specialist teachers into this specialism alongside the very limited curriculum time, which is often delivered within a carousel style model where students really only get 10 weeks of delivery for the entire year during the years in which food education is core. So years seven through to nine, so many schools are relying on short term symbolic activities rather than sustained hands on food learning in curriculum. So they may be sharing healthy eating messages through other subjects or via posters or guest speakers around school. And in fact, if you look at the responses we had in our Hungry for Change report, 30% of young people say that they lack the opportunities for practical activities such as cooking, gardening or food trips. And schools are most commonly relying on these low intensity activities. So 35%, for example, said that they saw posters around school. But the more meaningful activities, guest speakers came in at 17%, participation in food projects down at 14%, 15% apologies, they’re pretty rare. So it’s that hands on, sustained food learning, that is what firstly, young people enjoy the most, but also is what is hardest for schools to deliver.
Nick Hughes: Yes, and this comes to the point that in the report about the need to adopt a whole school approach to food, doesn’t it? And I know this, this idea of a whole school approach has. It feels as though it’s had a bit of currency in policy circles. I’ve seen certain government documents reference it. I think the previous government had, you know, was consulting on making some moves in that direction. But you make the point in the research that the current government is doing a lot around school food investing in breakfast clubs, for example, extension of free school meals eligibility. We’re expecting an update to the school food standards to be published very soon. But you argue that the benefits of this investment won’t be fully realised without high quality food education sitting alongside it. Why is that?
Jenny Paxman: You’re absolutely right. The current commitments from government to invest heavily in these changes to food provisioning. So breakfast clubs, free school meals and improved standards is hugely welcome. But without food education alongside it, government are missing a critical opportunity to turn the provision into lifelong habits, thereby unlocking the investment potential of making these changes. Because children need to understand food, not just receive it. Provisioning without good quality and consistent food education is ultimately set out to potentially not realise potential because the cultural shift around it won’t happen. So the anticipated benefits won’t be realised as lasting change. Parents believe that schools play a key role in food learning. And 87% of the parent responders to our survey said that they struggle to see the alignment between the meals that are served and what’s being taught in the limited curriculum time available. And whilst provision is a vehicle for behavioural change, education is the engine we need to drive that change. So fundamentally, we need to wrap that provisioning investment in a protective layer of food education that supports a whole scale cultural change for our young people.
Nick Hughes: Yes, and that was one thing that really stood out to me from the polling was this misalignment, if you like, between what young people are taught about good food and nutrition and how they often experience it within the school environment. I think under half of those with A school canteen agreed with the statement, the food we can buy or eat at school matches what we’re taught about eating well and staying healthy. How important is it that the quality of school meals young people eat reflects what they are being taught about healthy, sustainable eating?
Jenny Paxman: I mean, it’s crucial. From my perspective as a registered nutritionist, I truly believe that if the school food environment is contradicting classroom learning, it’s undermining the credibility of school food as a whole. Young people are really perceptive. If they’re taught one thing and served another, then the message is going to be lost. The gap, we know, reflects current funding pressures and its inconsistent standards and cultural norms around convenience eating, which are so prevalent in society at large. Fewer than half of the people, as you said, who were surveyed agree with that statement. School food reflects healthy eating messages taught in the classroom, but even fewer of them said the same of the snacks available in schools. And my children attend schools and, and can access these snacks and the, the menu is quite horrifying. You know, the fact that they’re being exposed to high fat, salt and sugar foods on a daily basis. Young people must be able to see and experience what they are taught, otherwise that learning just isn’t going to stick.
Nick Hughes: Yes, absolutely. And as you acknowledged you as a school food, the economics of school food are challenging, aren’t they? We’ve known that for a long time and I guess caterers would argue that they are doing their best with the resources they have and often I think in a secondary setting, in particular, the snacks that were referenced in the survey, the value added snacks and drinks are perhaps where they make their money versus certainly provision of hot school meals. So can we address the educational deficit without addressing those wider economic issues, do you feel around school food?
Jenny Paxman: No, I don’t think it is realistic to do one without the other. But luckily the government has made a commitment to address the provisioning of food. So we know that there is a commitment to roll out breakfast clubs and in fact the pilot has gone quite well. We’ve learned a lot through that process and there’s a commitment to roll this out more, more widely and the broader inclusivity around families who are eligible for universal credit, being able to access free school meals will hopefully add to the economies of scale of the benefits of providing a fresh school meal for children via school catering. And whilst I absolutely do appreciate the pressures, in particular in relation to limited budgets that catering providers are facing, we also know that that’s being squeezed further by the fact that they’re being charged again for the waste they produce. So by producing foods that children aren’t consuming, we’re actually making the service less cost effective. So the key thing for me is to work with the children to encourage that cultural change. That means that not only are children receiving food that they recognize as healthy and supportive of their own education and their physical activity, but also that they like what’s on offer and that they want to consume it and hopefully not waste it. And that makes the provisioning of that food even more economically viable.
Nick Hughes: This year sees the launch of the first ever Footprint Festival, a two day experiential and immersive sustainability festival set on a working farm in the heart of the Hampshire countryside. Created for senior leaders across food service and hospitality, this one of a kind annual event takes place on September 17th and 18th. We’ll blend sensory experiences, transformative content packaging, powerful networking and unforgettable food, drink and entertainment. Early bird tickets are now on sale. Visit footprintfestival.com for more details. So let’s touch on solutions. You in the report advocate a learn it, see it, live it approach to food in schools. Perhaps you can just expand on what that looks like in practice and what are your key asks on the back of the research.
Jenny Paxman: So learn it, See it, Live it really is about adopting a whole school approach to food learning, recognizing that learning does not have to be and really oughtn’t to be limited to the classroom setting. And whilst we wholly support the fact that the acquisition of food knowledge and in fact the development of food preparation skills are critical for children, particularly at secondary age, as they approach that independent stage of adolescent and start to make their own decisions and advocate for themselves, it isn’t the only part that schools need to play. Children need to be able to, given the opportunity to support to make supported decisions around food choice within a setting where they feel safe to do so. So being able to see the learning around them in the way that the building is structured, in the way that food is provided, in the way that they see food growing around them, makes it much easier for them to be reminded and supported to make those choices in relation to healthy foods, and also developing those skills and confidences around making decisions around food outside of the school gates and by supporting the understanding around food careers as well. So in fact, as children leave their secondary setting, they’re able to understand the opportunities available to them in terms of the food and nutrition workforce as well?
Nick Hughes: Yes, absolutely. And this is a point I think very much of relevance to Footprint’s audience of those working within the Food service and hospitality sector, where we know that labor is a challenge at the moment, recruiting a sufficient number of qualified chefs and development chefs, and beyond food service and hospitality, nutritionists like you touched on those working in food policy even and other careers. So it feels like good food education in schools can potentially act as a gateway into a career in the food sector or the hospitality sector for more young people and help bridge some of those skills gaps that the industry is experiencing.
Jenny Paxman: Absolutely. The food sector is one of the UK’s largest employers and that spans food production right the way through to food service and consumer service as well. Yet we’ve narrowed the pathways into food related careers. The removal of the A level in food technology and the A level in food and nutrition has really hampered progression into further and higher education and into food careers, because high quality food education can inspire young people into meaningful careers that span everything from production, hospitality, nutrition, food science, artisan food production and policy. But they need exposure and they need those formal, respected progression routes into the sector. The report highlights that by removing the A level as a barrier to progression, these problems have been reinforced and it calls for the reinstatement of A food A level. Because food education is not only about health, of course, it’s about aspiration and opportunity and a shortage of national skills.
Nick Hughes: Yes. So restoring the food A level, as you said, is one ask from the report. But beyond that, talk to me a little bit, Jenny, about sort of the importance of making food a core subject for everyone, whatever age and whatever stage of education they’re at and what that looks like in practice.
Jenny Paxman: So one of the things that we call for in the report is to ensure that food education and high quality food education is available for all children. And that is from key stage one, right the way through to the end of Key Stage 4, when formal education ends for the vast majority of young people before they take a leap into level three qualifications. And the reason that we want this to be a core offer and subject to the necessary reporting standards and accountability measures, is so that it can’t be missed. It’s about holding the education providers to account and ensuring that every child, irrespective of where they grow up, irrespective of their household income and irrespective of the type of school that they attend, they have access to the ability to the opportunity to develop the skills and the knowledge they need to navigate an increasingly complex food environment and hopefully to practice the behaviours, the cultural behaviours that allow them to do so, whilst also protecting theirs and their future families long term. Health and well being.
Nick Hughes: So in practice that means essentially putting food education on a par with subjects like physical education, like pshe.
Jenny Paxman: Absolutely that. And we know that physical education, pshe, citizenship are all embedded within the curriculum because they’re seen as priority subjects that enable children to navigate a modern landscape in a way that allows them to succeed in a way that allows them to, to thrive. And from our perspective, we feel that investing in the provisioning in schools without investing in the evolution of those skills, the supported development of those skills through the curriculum, but also through the co curricular and extracurricular offers that we see within our schools, those particularly those schools that do this best, it’s a missed opportunity and there’s a high risk here that the government’s going to invest a lot of time, energy, expertise and specifically money in providing better food for our young people, but not actually enabling those young people to access that and culturally adopt a, a way of working, a way of living, a way of navigating food environments that allows them to succeed in later life, allows them to be healthy as a member of the workforce, allows them to raise healthy families.
Nick Hughes: We talk and write a lot at Footprint about the challenges facing the food system and what’s needed to change the food system and improve it. And food education comes up so frequently among commentators and others that we speak to often seen as almost a panacea for encouraging good dietary habits later in life. Is it that simple or do we also need to change, see a change in food environments more generally so that those good habits that are developed at school continue into adulthood?
Jenny Paxman: I absolutely think you hit on a very important point here, that it is one part, it’s one lever that we can pull on as part of a suite of changes that need to be made. And I’m the last person to come onto your podcast and talk about a blanket ban on ultra processed foods, for example. I think we need to recognize that society has fundamentally shifted towards a model in which people are busy and they value convenience and they’re economically challenged and they need to be able to afford to eat well. But whilst so called ultra processed foods can offer convenient ways in which we can access protein and other nutrients and fiber, they’re also high in fat, salt and sugar in many instances. And then these, what I’ve previously heard coined, utterly pointless foods enter the food chain and it’s our job to ensure that our young people can be discerning and that they can make choices to support their own financial situation and their own time availability and yet still be able to Access healthy food and that is about skills, but it’s also about knowledge and it’s also about want. You know, none of us is going to change behavior if we’re not seeing it as being important. So it’s about resetting culture and it will take time. And there are many stakeholders here. It’s not just about the education sector who, let’s face it, have plenty of asks on them and are already under resourced. But we need to recognize that you’ve got to start somewhere. And whilst many of us adults are quite set in our ways and find it harder to change, I think young people are malleable and they have loud voices, they care about the planet and they care about their own well being. And I think those two things are really powerful levers for us to harness when we’re talking about food education.
Nick Hughes: Yes. And you talk about a whole school approach, I mean, it feels to me we need to, Yes, a whole school approach, but actually beyond the school gate as well. Other stakeholders to play their role, whether that be local councils restricting planning applications for new takeaways, for example, within, you know, a certain distance within a, within a school. And I know some local authorities have been really strong in doing that. I wonder, Jenny, are there any lessons for how parents can engage children with food and meal preparation outside of school and within the home that have come out of your research?
Jenny Paxman: Absolutely. And we heard from the poll that parents and young people reported that where children were involved in the preparation of food, they were more likely to see food education as important, they were more likely to want more food education and they were more likely to see the benefit of preparing food together and eating food together as being a way to connect with the people around us. And I think that’s something that perhaps has been lost in modern society as we rush between clubs and work and school and all of our other priorities in life, that we forget that sharing food together and eating food together is also a powerful way to learn through food. And we often talk at the School of Artisan Food about learning through food. And one of the things we prioritize at the school is that everyone just sit down together to eat every single day. And it is one of the most powerful parts of the day. And I think if we were to treat the eating occasions that we’re offering our children at school as learning opportunities, extensions to the classroom, we would realise the benefits in a really powerful way.
Nick Hughes: Well, Jenny, that’s been a fascinating whistle stop tour through the challenges and opportunities around school food education. Just for listeners who’d like to find out more would like to read the report. Where can they find that?
Jenny Paxman: Absolutely. So that’s on our Best Food Forward website. If you search Best Food Forward Hungry for Change, you’ll find the report is there to download. And if you are indeed time poor, there is an executive summary so you can download that through the Best Food Forward website. You can find out more about the School of artisan food@scudevartisanfood.org Super.
Nick Hughes: Well, Jenny, thank you very much for joining us on the Small Print.
Jenny Paxman: Thank you, Nick.
Nick Hughes: We’ll be back next week with another episode of the Small Print. If you like what you’ve heard, please take a moment to rate, share and subscribe.
