Year 11s have completed their practical non-exam assessment, making 3 dishes in 3 hours. This was a very intense and hectic 3 hours but the final results were amazing and the students did themselves proud! Unfortunately, I cannot show photographs of their final dishes yet, so please take a look at last year’s.
Miss Scott
Lead Teacher of Food Preparation and Nutrition
This week, Year 7 and Year 8 students entered Miss Scott’s STEM Festival Jam Tarts Competition. After learning about the science behind making the perfect shortcrust pastry, students were challenged to make 6 perfect jam tarts. The competition saw may students entering and the competition was very high. The judges were Mrs Hall, Miss Scott, Mrs Moss and Mrs Bennet. The quality of the jam tarts blew them away!
1st prize went to Evelyn B Y7
2nd prize went to Alice T Y7
3rd prize went to Evie S and Ella B Y7.
Prizes and certificates will he handed out in assembly next week.
Miss Scott
Lead Teacher of Food Preparation and Nutrition
This week, Year 9 and Year 10 students attended Lancashire Farm Education Centre in Croston to learn all about Intensive Farming.
PGHS students visited a working dairy farm and during the visit, students had the opportunity to expand their knowledge and understanding of food processing and production on an intensive dairy farm. The activities at the farm were developed around the school curriculum. There was a warm welcome at the farm from Farmer Elaine and her husband, Paul. Students had a tour of the farm, learning all about the cows, their diets, how they are looked after, how the farm is run and all the machinery they use, such as the milking robots and ‘Bob’ the silage feeder.
Students were then asked to go around the farm independently to answer all the questions on the quiz to see what they could remember. After lunch, students learnt about primary and secondary production and had a go at making their own butter – which was very yummy! Students also completed a ‘milking’ challenge, filling buckets with water from the rubber teats used to feed the calves. Elaine gave us a tour of the fields and students learnt about the importance of nature, soil and grass in food production.
All the students enjoyed themselves thoroughly, especially being able to stroke the calves! The trip was a great success, with everyone thoroughly involved in all aspects of the trip!
Miss Scott
Lead Teacher of Food Preparation and Nutrition
Last week, all Year 8 students were involved in a fantastic STEM day, taking part in the IET Faraday Engineering Challenge. The challenge gave the students the opportunity to create a solution for a real-world challenge, based this year on designing an attraction for a UK theme park. The students worked in teams of 5 or 6 and each person in the group had a specific role, such as a project manager and an accountant, as well as a visual designer and a manufacturing engineer. They had to include electronics in their designs and even had to do an engineering apprenticeship in order to complete the day. All students participated really well, and the outcomes were very impressive. Year 8 can be credited on their positive attitudes and great behaviour on the day; there are definitely some potential engineers within the year group and it will be exciting to see where it takes them in the future.
Mrs M Moss
Curriculum Coordinator of Design & Technology
During the STEM Festival, Year 9 will be taking part in the ‘If you were an Engineer what would you do?’ Leaders Award competition.
The competition will be challenging students from primary and secondary schools to identify a problem and design a creative solution to it and add a letter explaining why an engineer should choose to build it. As part of the competition, they are required to interview engineers to understand more about the problems they solve and the role they play in society.
Every student that enters will have their idea read and graded by an engineer. All our students will receive certificates and shortlisted entries will be put forward to a panel where the best ideas will be celebrated at an awards event and public exhibition in the summer term. Whilst this is a national exhibition, the awards and exhibitions are regional so you will be able to see the ideas from across the region. More can be found on the competition website www.leadersaward.com
One extraordinary part of the competition is that every year, university teams choose an idea from the shortlisted entries to build!
We entered the competition for the first time in 2022 and the school had great success having two highly commended entries and also the two winners for year 10 for Lancashire. A tough act to follow, but we know year 9 will be up for the challenge!
Mrs Goodwill
Science Department
The annual STEM festival is in full swing with a plethora of activities taking place to give an insight into the opportunities that STEM related subjects can bring to our students as they move through their lives and their careers.
Year 7 students will be learning and researching in Science about careers within the NHS as well as enjoying the delights of a visiting planetarium, learning about the events resulting in the formation of the universe as well as the ongoing NASA, Artemis mission. In Maths students will be developing their everyday budgeting skills as well as taking part in a food bake off challenge in Food Technology.
Year 8 students will be honing their engineering skills as they take on the nationally acclaimed Faraday challenge; this will include problem solving, designing and practical making skills hosted by Design Technology. In Music, students will take place in a workshop showing the benefits of music therapy while learning about careers within the NHS during Science. In Maths students will be developing their everyday budgeting skills along with developing their code breaking skills.
Year 9 students will be taking part in a variety of challenges in Maths including the Runshaw Maths Challenge and a special escape room challenge. In Science they will be entering the ‘Who wants to be an engineer’ competition, submitting a design to solve an everyday problem, students will also get the opportunity to do some ‘chemical cookery’ making tasty treats using the application of Science. Some Year 9s will also get the opportunity to visit Lancashire Teaching Farm.
Year 10 Students will learn about the history and importance of code breaking with a virtual visit to Bletchley Park, whilst Y11 students will learn about the Bank of England during their Maths lessons. Both Year 10 and Year 11 students will get the opportunity to meet professionals from a variety of STEM related careers during our STEM Career’s Carousel finding out about potential career pathways related to STEM.
Throughout the festival, those of a competitive nature can take part in the STEM festival Jam tart competition as well as the PGHS version of the popular game show ‘The Chase’. A STEM related Open Mic event will be taking place as well as an African Colour (Red, Green, Black and Yellow) themed non-uniform day to raise money for a school building project in Kenya.
Mr Knee
Science Department
Believe it or not, being a chef in a restaurant isn’t the only career path you can take with Food! There are many jobs related to the food industry. The career lesson in Food and Nutrition for students in Year 8 was to discover the variety of careers within the food industry. We looked at local cafes in Penwortham and looked at how they made their food look so good. We then focused on the career of a food stylist and styled a simple meal , beans on toast. We took photographs to make it look appetising and good enough for an advertisement or a website.
Miss Scott
Lead Teacher of Food Preparation and Nutrition
During the final week of school last term, Year 8 were introduced to careers within Design and Technology through a focused practical task. Students were to imagine themselves as part of a production team designing and making greetings cards for the company, Cath Kidston. Students worked in small teams and had to delegate tasks in the production line to produce the cards. Their roles involved using a laser cutter to cut out the designs in card, printing designs on to fabric using the heat press, hand stitching and machine stitching fabric into the cards and decorating the cards with greeting designs. Students worked well together and they could see how the quality of the products improved the more that they produced. Team work was a big part in the activity and students really got to feel what it was like to work alongside others and listen to and give advice to one another.
Mrs Moss
Curriculum Co-ordinator for Design Technology
Baking Club
Baking Club has been extremely popular this year. To allow all students wishing to attend, students have been given one term each throughout the year. You will have received a parent mail letter stating when your child will attend and this is then sent out again nearer the time to remind students.
In the baking club, we have made and decorated cupcakes, pancakes (and practised flipping them) flapjacks, brownies and gingerbread ready for Christmas celebrations.
Here is a snapshot of some of the projects that KS3 complete in Food and Nutrition:
Year 7
Students throughout year 7 are introduced to health and safety in the kitchen. They learn the importance of cleaning both equipment and surfaces, and storing and cooking food safely. Year 7 learn The Eatwell Guide (nutritional needs through life stages) and then apply these principles when planning and making meals. Year 7 cook a repertoire of predominantly savoury dishes such as pizza toast and pasta salad so that they are able to feed themselves and others a healthy and varied diet.
Students become competent in a range of cooking techniques, such as selecting and preparing ingredients, measuring and weighing, how to use various utensils (knives, spoons, spatulas) and electrical equipment (whisks). They also learn to apply heat in different ways (oven, grill, hob) and develop an awareness of taste, texture and smell to decide how to season dishes and combine ingredients.
Year 8
Students in year 8 are introduced to health and safety in the kitchen, bacterial contamination and the importance of controlling cross contamination in the kitchen. They conduct a food science investigation on raising agents and learn the functional and chemical properties of ingredients in bread making. Linking to the festival theme throughout the technology subjects, Year 8 plan and make festival-style hand held food, such as pizzas and burgers.
Year 9
Year 9 students are introduced to health and safety in the kitchen, along with an in-depth knowledge into microorganisms and avoiding food spoilage. Throughout the technology, the Year 9 theme is ‘eco warriors’ and in Food and Nutrition, students learn about consumer choices and how this can have an impact on farming, looking in particular at intensive egg farming. Students also learn about buying locally produced seasonal ingredients and the benefits of this. Then, using seasonal vegetables, students plan and make a seasonal soup and vegetable curry.
Miss Scott
Food Preparation and Nutrition
As we come to the end of the first full term of the school year, we would like to reflect on some of the exciting work that has been taking place in the Design and Technology department.
Jessica B in Year 9 has been showing great skills in designing products for creation using the 3D printer. This came about due to an inspirational workshop run in school by ‘CREATE EDUCATION’, a company trying to encourage the use of 3D printer technology in schools with a view to encouraging a love for all things STEM.
Jessica has really enjoyed exploring this project further by extending her knowledge of the software ONSHAPE to design further products to be made using the 3D printer. You can see the results in the pictures. Jessica hopes to be able to explore this even further and we will be looking for future projects and competitions that she may be able to take part in using her skills.
