It was a sweet success for a school’s set of virtual cookery classes held during lockdown as more than 100 tuned in to the online culinary masterclass.
Neale-Wade Academy's food, catering and hospitality lead Jennie Sinclair held sessions during the coronavirus lockdown, teaching attendees how to cook.
Ms Sinclair said: “I donned my apron and set the laptop up with a web cam in my kitchen at home and the logins started to stream in for the first session.
“It felt great. Supported by my colleague Steffi Prentice, we guided the attendees to make lots of food including pizza scones, cheese bites and hot cross buns.
“Students sent me pictures of their bakes afterwards with some lovely comments and it reminded me why I trained to be a teacher in the first place.
“I strongly believe that being able to cook a variety of dishes is a core part of future life for students and also gives them basic skills.
“Such as using different types of equipment, health and safety advice and also to understand how to plan a healthy balanced diet and general well-being.
“Hopefully in the next academic year we can resume cooking in school for all years however I do plan to do some form of cooking clubs, either in school or virtual, and have also been considering a cooking session for parents.”
Graham Horn, who took over the leadership of the school last September following the retirement of Jason Wing, praised students and staff for their work during lockdown.
He said: “The quality of education I have seen being delivered across the school has been exceptional and I am proud of the whole school community for how they took the challenges of the recent months in their stride to allow us to be an even stronger school.
“Underpinning my vision for Neale-Wade Academy is that I want it to become the school of choice and the place to go in the area.
“To achieve this, we need to have pride in what we do and the confidence to shout about our many successes.
“Activities like the online cookery sessions held during lockdown really demonstrated this and the enthusiasm for the school community to get together in these more unusual times.
“This drive has certainly been evident since we returned both before and after Easter.
“We are busy making plans for when Government restrictions are further eased to allow us to hold events to support the community and raise money for charity, and also hold transition events for Year 6 pupils and a summer school.”
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