Chartwells’ curriculum-linked Spotlight Session videos are supported by lesson plans, practical activities, worksheets and quizzes, all available to download for free online.
Against a backdrop of food insecurity, rising childhood obesity, and a growing number of children managing allergens, it has never been more important for schools to educate pupils about food, nutrition, and cooking. Food education teaches young people about the importance of healthy and nutritious diets, which in turn can lead to better food choices and healthier eating habits throughout their lives. But with structural challenges and rising costs, we know it’s becoming increasingly challenging for schools to deliver this vital service.
So how can the industry work together to help schools amplify their food education and inspire the next generation to have a lifelong love of fantastic food, which is good for both their health and the planet? Setting schools and children up with the resources they need to make positive choices around food, nutrition, wellbeing, and sustainability is vital.
Create a memorable learning experience
A key part of the jigsaw in inspiring better food choices amongst children is creating memorable moments that will stay with them long after they’ve left school. We should be helping them to develop a real understanding of what they need and what they love to eat, while making sure it’s good for their minds and bodies.
At Chartwells, we’re committed to collaborating with schools across the UK to deliver engaging educational tools and digital content. Which is why last week, at the Schools and Academies Show in Birmingham, we launched the latest instalment in our ‘Spotlight Session’ digital learning series, starring former CBeebies presenter Katy Ashworth.
Delivered as part of our award-winning Beyond the Chartwells kitchen programme, the three-part video series aimed at Key Stage 2 aged children provides schools with free, engaging lessons on food preparation, digestion, and how we can improve our gut health by eating high fibre foods such as fruits, vegetables, and wholegrains.
While gut health is now being recognised as an important consideration for adults – more than half (55%) of people are now more actively aware of their gut health than last year[1] – it’s also essential to consider our children’s gut health and help empower them to make healthy choices from a young age. Alongside this, there is currently a huge knowledge gap when it comes to gut health, especially surrounding how looking after your gut microbiome proactively can have a positive impact on other areas of health and wellbeing[2].
Three in five (60%) people are unaware that gut health can affect immunity and mental health (58%)1, and over a third (34%) say that they do not know what proactive measures they can take to look after their gut microbiome1. With this in mind, it’s clear that the need to educate and equip younger generations with vital information to make informed decisions about food has never been more prevalent.
We know that for many children social media and digital resources are how they learn about the world. But worryingly these platforms provide a lot of misinformation and confusion when it comes to health and nutrition. In fact, findings from Our Fuelling Young Minds report found that a quarter (25%) of primary and secondary school pupils trust the information that they find online about nutrition, and only 7% verify what they find online with an expert[3].
Through this simple, fun video series not only do we want to provide a comprehensive, cost-effective digital resource for schools and teachers, but we also want to help simplify what can be a complex subject for children and give them the confidence they need to make better food choices.
Katy Ashworth adds: “Early education on health and nutrition is essential for setting children up with a positive outlook on food that lasts a lifetime. This new Spotlight Session, developed in partnership with Chartwells, is an extension of their mission to fuel pupils’ minds and learning, and delivers fun, accessible lessons on how to take care of your gut.
“Pupils will go on an engaging journey through the digestive system throughout a series of three videos, with supporting lesson plans, classroom experiments and quizzes – providing hours of fun learning for pupils, packaged up in a way that’s easy for teachers to deliver. The sessions will inspire a real love of nutritious food and ignite pupils’ passions for protecting their physical and mental health, as well as the planet.”
Looking ahead
We know there is still plenty of work to be done to ensure young people are educated and feel empowered to make the right decisions when it comes to nutrition, food choices and sustainability. Schools play a huge role in providing young people with the knowledge they need to make these decisions. But we know they can’t do it on their own. To achieve real change, we need to work alongside our clients, suppliers, the wider industry, as well as other key stakeholders in the education space.
Looking ahead, we are committed to supporting and collaborating with schools across the UK to create engaging tools and digital content that will help educate their pupils, and will continue to roll out more of these digital content series in the new year to help educate and inspire pupils. We’re also continuing to look for ways to reach more children through new and innovative platforms so that we fuel the appetite of future generations with the information they need to live a healthy life.
The curriculum-linked Spotlight Session videos are designed by teachers for teachers, and supported by lesson plans, practical activities, worksheets and quizzes, all available to download for free on Chartwells’ website.
[1] Dr Megan Rossi (PhD RD) – research in partnership with Holland & Barrett https://corporate.hollandandbarrett.com/news/9-1-2024/
[2] The British Dietetic Association https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/food-and-mood-how-do-foods-affect-how-you-feel.html
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