There was a huge buzz around the school when the Cooking Bus came to St James School in October. Thank you to everyone who was so patient as the poor driver held up the traffic outside the school as he tried to manoeuvre the huge lorry through the gates and into the playground. The lorry opened up to make a large kitchen and classroom. The Cooking Bus had come to teach staff and parents how to cook with children. Many staff had not been confident about cooking safely with large groups of children, particularly when using sharp knives, graters and vegetable peelers etc. Staff and parents went on the bus first and the professional cooks showed us how to make the "bridge", a way of holding food for slicing and keeping fingers out of the way of the knife blade. We learned to make the "claw" a way of holding food safely for chopping. We also learned how to teach other food safety and hygiene issues and how to prepare for a cooking session. To many of us, who have cooked with children over the years, it was a revelation, and we could see how much easier it would be to use these new methods with the children. We couldn't wait to try them out and over the next two weeks, every class cooked a range of recipes.

Throughout the week, the children went on the bus too and they learned how to cook some very tasty recipes designed to practise the new skills they were learning, The lentil and pumpkin soup was delicious and the couscous salad gave them experience of chopping and slicing.  The Beavers and Brownies also had the opportunity to cook on the bus after school. Year 6 used their new skills at our Harvest Lunch for local senior citizens just before half term. The children made the bread rolls with our school cook Michelle and they made different soups with staff and parents. We had a fish tasting day, where children did a blind tasting session and had to give each fish a score. The favourite fish was salmon, with mackerel a close second. Classes also made fish fingers or fish shapes and fish cakes with different types of fish, comparing them with bought ones. The homemade ones won hands down and the children could see how easy they were to make.

We have now taken on the Jamie Oliver challenge and everyone who went on the bus is going to "pass it on" and teach someone else the skills they have learned. Many of the parents who went on the bus are now helping to cook in school or are running the cookery club. As a school we want children to enjoy a variety of food and be confident cooks. It is a subject that has been squeezed out of the curriculum over many years and many of our young people have been growing up without learning the skills or having the experience of cooking. We are bringing cooking experiences into all our topics at St James School  eg. ships' biscuits and potato recipes as part of the Year 6 Explorers topic and we have much to do to develop a progression of cooking skills for the youngest to the oldest children.

Earlier in the term, we celebrated the National European Day of Languages, and the children agreed that one of the best parts of the day was making and trying different foreign foods. Every class experienced aspects of the culture, language and food of France, Holland, Spain and Germany. We were lucky to have staff and parents with some expertise or knowledge of these countries and we hope to do this again next year.

If any keen cooks in Elstead would like to help us with cooking in school on a regular or occasional basis, we should be very pleased to hear from you. You could come with a friend and it would also be great to have some male cooks too. Why not come and join us?