Parents back cookery for schoolkids

The vast majority of parents would like to see their children given cooking lessons at school, according to a study by contract caterer Sodexho.

Amid increasing concern about the health of the nation's children and a warning from doctors last week that childhood obesity is now at epidemic levels, eight out of 10 parents and 68% of pupils aged five to 16 said they wanted cooking lessons.

But just 38% of parents said they regularly cooked for their children every day. Nearly a quarter of parents (24%) admitted that, if their child did not have a proper meal at school, they would be unlikely to have one at home.

The poll, of more than 1,000 children and a similar number of parents, also found that 41% of eight- to 16-year-olds rarely ate meals with their parents at home.

But school meals were enjoyed by 84% of children, with pizza the top choice. Chips have dropped out of the list of top-five favourites for the first time in six years - replaced by curry.

And when it comes to buying food, children's spending power has increased by 68% in the past four years, Sodexho's seventh biennial School Meals Survey found.

They now spend more than £1.3b a year on food, with nearly one-third of it going on snacks on the way to and from school.

Among eight- to 16-year-olds, sweets accounted for 42% of the money they spent, crisps made up 33%, chocolate 28% and chewing gum 9%.

Just 68% of children thought their diet was healthy, and 26% said they did not do enough exercise. Watching too much television, being lazy and spending too much time talking to friends were the main reasons.

Jim Brewster, managing director of Sodexho Education, said schools had an ever more important role in educating children about food, health and exercise, as well as often being the main provider of meals.

by Nic Paton

Days of wonky cakes are over

Although home economics is nominally still part of the school curriculum, the days when children went home with a lovingly baked wonky cake or a sloppy casserole are long gone, says Sodexho.

Food science comes under design technology in many schools and is rotated with lessons on textiles and what is called "resistant materials" - covering areas such as metal and woodworking.

Even when food science is on the timetable, it is a much wider subject than just cooking and baking, encompassing matters such as food safety, how to use basic kitchen tools, marketing and packaging, and lessons on how, for instance, bread can be baked in different ways.

"How to whip an egg or bake a cake just does not happen, and, even when children do cook, it is not exactly innovative and is not focused on their diet," said Rosamund Marshall, divisional director for Sodexho's commercial education division.

She said parents were also too ready to turn to ready meals and TV dinners.