Key Stage 3

The Northern Ireland Curriculum seeks to empower pupils to achieve their potential and to make informed and responsible decisions throughout their lifes. It is about helping pupils prepare for life and work.

Home Economics at Key Stage 3 plays a significant role in this. It provides pupils with oppurtunities to explore real uses explicitly relevant to real life contents.

Home Economics develop pupils as individuals by helping them explore their health, enhancing their potential to live a healthly lifestyle and make responsible choises about their diet and health. It helps develop pupils as contributors to society by giving them a snese of themsleves as social beings and how they relate to one another. Pupils learn and develop practical skills in a safe and hygenic environment.

The key concepts at Key Stage 3 are:

Healthly Eating

Home and Family Life

Independant Living

Exploring Healthly Eating provides opportunities to develop understanding required in choice, planning, storage, preparation, cooking and serving food. Home and Family Life provides opportunities to understand the importance of the family as a caring unit. Independant Living provides oppurtunities to understand the importance of becoming discerning consumers. Assessed Term Examinations and continual assessment in class/homework.

Practicals in Key Stage 3

All ingredients are sourced locally and healthy alternatives are used where appropiate.

Home Economics provide a unique oppurtunity for pupils to develop and apply knowledge, understanding, skills and competence related to Home and Family life. The course at GCSE involves students in the study of Diet and Health and Consumer Awareness.

It encourages knowledge and understanding and the skills necessary for providing healthy diets for family members throughout life. Students are encouraged to think cirtically, make informed choices, develop practical food skills and manage resources that they are enabled to lead effective lifes as individuals and family members as well as members of the wider community. The integrated approach reflects the coherent delivery of a broad and balanced syllabus. The Course at Occupational Studies involves students in the Study of Cookery and Practical Skills.

It encourages knowledge and understanding and the skills needed to plan, prepare and make a wide reange of practical dishes suitable for service. Students are encouraged to work independently and present dishes to an extremely high standard.

GCSE - Home Economics

This course focuses on two main areas:

Diet and Health - Including nutrients, Labelling, Dietary Disorders, What's in Food, Special Diets, Food Safety, Creativity.

Consumer Awareness - Consumerism, Rights and Responibility, Consumer Law, Budgeting and Credit

Assessed: One terminal examination and two assignments

The course focuses on two main units:

Unit 1 - Food Preparation and Cooking - Kitchen and Larder

Unit 2 - Food Preparation and Cooking - Patesserie

Assessed: On-going assessment 16 elements. An assessment question papers.

Post 16

NVQ Level 2 Profession cookery provides pupils with the oppurtunity to gain the skills and knowledge needed to become a chef. In conjunction with Belfast Metropolitan College this course not only prepares a pupil with practical skills but also endeavours to draw out creativity and personal independence of each of its pupils.

Structure - 3 Core Units:

Maintain a Safe, Hygenic and Secure Working Environment

Contribute to Effective Teamwork

Main Food Safety when Storing, Preparing and Cooking Food