Almost half a million (459,609) parents and teachers downloaded nearly 1.4 million free resources and recipes from ‘Food – a fact of life’, the British Nutrition Foundation’s (BNF) education programme for schools*, during 2020.
Last March, ‘Food – a fact of life’ reacted swiftly to the COVID-19 pandemic and launched a new remote learning hub to support families and teachers with a range of free resources and activities designed for primary and secondary school pupils studying at home. The remote learning hub released new waves of content throughout the year, and there are now over 550 resources, activities and ideas available for parents and teachers to use during the current school closure.
The remote learning resources focus on key food themes within curriculum areas, such as where food comes from, cooking and healthy eating. The resources also offer a range of opportunities for cross-curricular learning and use food as the vehicle to provide engaging learning through numeracy, literacy, humanities, science, D&T, religious education, art and health and wellbeing. Many activities are suitable for independent learning and do not require the use of a computer or the Internet.
Roy Ballam, Managing Director and Head of Education, BNF, comments: “We are overwhelmed by the response to our Food – a fact of life resources throughout 2020. It demonstrates that, despite everything going on in the world, parents, teachers and young people are still finding time for education on food and healthy eating.
The Food – a fact of life website provides a huge range of teaching materials to help teachers across the country embed food education into their classes, as well as over 300 recipes to encourage children and young people to get cooking. When the world turned upside down last year, and pupils found themselves learning from home, we expanded our catalogue with a host of easy-to-access resources to ensure education about food and healthy eating could continue. As we enter another extended period of pupils across the UK learning from home, we hope even more families can benefit from the resources.”
As well as providing a range of activities and educational resources for remote learning, the BNF has shared guidance for how parents and carers can direct learning at home, and support for teachers around setting work and planning lessons and their own professional development.
Mrs Goodwin, Burnside College, Wallsend, North Tyneside, a teacher who used the remote learning resources during the first lockdown, comments: “I would just like to pass on my thanks to the team who has created the resources for home learning during this difficult time. I am a secondary school teacher and I used many of the ‘WAVE’ tasks and activities to encourage participation in learning about food and beyond. The resources have not only supported planning but work life balance and ‘wellbeing’. Once again, many thanks and I will continue to use your resources and have already spread the word to my colleagues.”
To access the BNF’s remote learning resources, please visit: www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/remote-learning