Cookery Club
Why is important to learn to cook?
My grandfather was a chef in the army during the war. He cooked for very important people, including leaders like Winston Churchill and the King. Because my grandparents had lived through hard times and knew what hunger felt like, they made sure no one in their street went without food. Even during rationing, my grandfather could always find a way to make a hot meal for people who needed one. Being able to cook was a life-saving skill.
In my family, everyone learned how to cook from a very young age. As soon as we were old enough to be safe in the kitchen, we helped with cooking. Boys and girls were expected to learn. We didn’t just bake cakes and biscuits — we learned how to cook healthy, low-cost family meals and how to use and preserve food grown in the garden.
I have cooked for as long as I can remember. When I took my GCSEs (they were called O Levels back then), the subject was called Domestic Science. We learned about nutrition and how to cook balanced meals. On my exam day, I was given two dishes to make for people in a hospital. One was for someone who had been very ill, and the other was for a mother who was feeding a baby. The meals were plain and not colourful, but they needed real skill to prepare properly.
Today, the subject is often called Food Technology at GCSE. My daughters was asked to design pizza packaging but not cook the pizza itself. I was told this was to prepare students for factory work, where food is put together rather than cooked.
I don’t think cooking should only be about one role or factory work. I believe everyone should know how to cook, understand what they are eating, and know how food helps keep them healthy. One of the great things about being home educated is that you can choose what you learn to cook and why.
Homeschooling Cookery Club
We started the Homeschool Garden Club at Orchard Training during lockdown to give us more ways to learn. When our fruit and vegetables were ready to harvest, we needed recipes to use the food we had grown. This led to the Homeschooling Cookery Club.
Each week, there is a recipe to match what you are learning, with a different dish for each year group. The recipes link to national, international, and religious celebrations, the food being grown by our Garden Club study buddies, and what we are learning about health.
Across the year, you will cook three types of recipes: healthy foods, treats, and 50/50 foods. There will be more healthy recipes, fewer treats, and only a small number of 50/50 recipes. You should keep these recipes in your evidence folder under Design and Technology to show the Education Welfare Officer. You can also make your own cookery folder, and by the end of the year you will have your own personal recipe book.
When you see the green tree symbol, it means the recipe is a healthy one. These recipes help you cook nutritious meals for your family and prepare food in advance, such as meals for the freezer on busy days. You don’t need to worry about counting calories. Instead, the information sheet explains the ingredients and why they are good for you.
When you see the pink tree symbol, it means the recipe is a treat. We try to make treats as healthy as possible, but they should only be eaten sometimes. Having a treat now and again is fine, but not every day.
When you see the red tree symbol, it means the recipe is a 50/50 food. These foods are about half sugar and half fat. Cakes, ice cream, and other celebration foods often fit this group. They taste great, but they are not good for your body if eaten too often. These should only be made once a year as a special treat. Enjoy them, but keep portions small and don’t make them often.
At the end of each recipe, you can rate it by colouring in the apples. If you colour in one or two apples, it means you didn’t like it very much and don’t need to make it again. If you colour in four or five apples, it’s a recipe worth keeping and cooking again.
Once you’ve made a recipe and like it, you can change it to suit you by using different ingredients. If you do this, write about the changes in your evidence diary, rewrite the recipe with your changes, and keep it with the original in your recipe folder. Don’t forget to take photos and add them too.
Exercise For Free
Exercise For Free
Links Between the Cookery Club and Being a Diabetes Community Champion
What is a Diabetes Community Champion?
A Diabetes Community Champion is someone who helps people understand diabetes and how to live healthily. Community Champions raise awareness by running stalls, giving talks, sharing information, and helping at community events like health days and local festivals.
As a Community Champion, I talk about diabetes during Cookery Club and Health and Wellbeing Club. This helps learners understand what diabetes is and how food and lifestyle choices can make a difference.
We now have several learners with Type 1 diabetes who are home educated with us because school became difficult to manage. We also know that some of our families are affected by diabetes. Our aim is to help learners understand diabetes so they can be supportive and inclusive of their study buddies. We also learn how to cook food that helps manage diabetes at home, how to reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes in the future, and how to take action to prevent or reverse pre-diabetes where possible.
Would you like to be a Community Champion?
You might enjoy this role if:
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You care about helping others understand diabetes
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You are involved in your local community
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You want to help improve health and wellbeing
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You are able to attend a two-day training session near where you live
If you are interested, you can apply by emailing
communitychampions@diabetes.org.uk
In your email, tell Diabetes UK a little about yourself and the community you would like to help.
Link Between All Three Clubs
Cookery Club
Learning how to prepare and cook healthy food is a life skill you’ll use forever, which makes Cookery Club a brilliant thing to join. Eating what you cook is a big bonus too.
You’ll learn how food affects your body and how to reduce sugar, salt, and fat in meals. This helps you stay healthy and make better choices when eating out, especially when spotting 50/50 foods and balancing them across the week.
When you know how to make a quick, tasty snack at home, it’s often faster than going out for junk food — and it saves your pocket money. Planning menus, shopping wisely, and choosing seasonal foods all count as money skills and learning too. Don’t forget to record this in your evidence diary.
Garden Club
Getting outside and working in the garden is great for your mental health. Growing your own food helps you understand where food comes from and lets you make better choices about what you eat. You’ll learn about plants, insects that help plants grow (called pollinators), and how different environments work.
All the digging, planting, and watering also counts as daily exercise. Spending time growing things is part of your home education too, so remember to record it in your evidence diary.
Health and Wellbeing Club
This club helps you look after both your mind and your body. You’ll learn what to eat, when to eat, and why food choices matter. This affects your energy levels, sleep, mood, movement, and overall health.
The games you play and the work you do in the garden all count as your daily movement, helping you stay active without it feeling like hard work.
You can join one club or all three — and they work really well together. They cover learning in biology, PE, PSHE, and Design and Technology, all while doing fun, practical activities. It’s learning without even feeling like learning.