Free education resources will be available to all young learners as they return to school, with AHDB’s hugely popular and effective education partnership programme, Food – a fact of life, with the British Nutrition Foundation.
Originally set up by the British Nutrition Foundation over 30 years ago, and with AHDB strengthening the programme four years ago, Food – a fact of life now offers over 2,000 free education resources to teachers of students between 3 and 16 years of age.
This collaboration combines the nutrition expertise of the British Nutrition Foundation with AHDB’s farming expertise to provide evidence-based resources and training to teaching professionals across the UK.
Last year, as a result of using resources from Food – a fact of life, 85 per cent of pupils in the UK were more informed about where food comes from, and 88 per cent of pupils were more informed about healthy eating.
Forming part of AHDB’s strategy to protect and promote the reputation of British agriculture, the levy board has a focus on developing accurate and up to date education resources with the aim of reaching and informing consumers of the future.
Roz Reynolds, Head of Education at AHDB, said: “With the new school term starting shortly, we hope these free resources will help teachers across the country to provide fun and informative lessons which help to equip students with critical life skills around food, allowing them to make informed consumer choices in the future.”
In 2021 alone, resources which include activity packs, quizzes, lesson plans, presentations and work sheets were downloaded 1.3 million times.
Overall, almost 1,000 educators attended events, workshops, and webinars last year, covering topics such as cheese making and butchery, with 80 percent using the training to update their own lesson plans.
Regional conferences will be held this year offering teacher training to build confidence in delivering classes on food and farming.
Focusing on providing life skills in nutrition and healthy eating, practical cooking skills and where food comes from, the programme meets all UK national curricula and alleviates some of the increasing time and budget pressures faced by educators.
Amy Bergiers, a primary school teacher at Nantgaredig Primary School, said: “I can honestly say that Food – a fact of life makes life so much easier for teachers. As we begin the new school year, I’ve been busy familiarising myself with the AHDB and British Nutrition Foundation’s resources and it’s impressive – there’s so much more available than previous years.
“What is fantastic is that all the resources are editable, which means that we can add further content to suit teachers’ and pupils’ needs. As a primary school in the countryside, what we require for teaching might be different from a city-based school, so there is the flexibility to adapt the content for every classroom regardless of their location.
“I think that all schools should take advantage of the Food – a fact of life programme, the website is very much a one-stop shop and it’s clear the resources have been written by people with a real understanding of the subject and what works in the classroom.”
More recently AHDB and the British Nutrition Foundation have also begun to showcase different job roles and opportunities that are available within the food and farming industry to ignite and encourage passion for the sectors and highlight the vast array of career opportunities within the industry.
To hear more about how Food – a fact of life has helped teachers, visit https://ahdb.org.uk/education-case-study-amy-bergiers-nantgaredig-primary-school-wales and https://ahdb.org.uk/education-case-study-michaela-ryan-wellington-school-altrincham
Learn more about AHDB’s education work with its latest Food and Farming Podcast https://audioboom.com/posts/8149953-educating-consumers-of-the-future
