Please excuse our intrusion into your holday break, but we thought that you may like to know how your school has done compared with other schools in your locality, and for us to share the national average for the new GCSE.

 

We do hope that your results are as you expected and whatever your outcomes, we would like to extend our thanks and praise for the hard work and dedication that all food teachers have shown in implementing this new course under difficult circumstances of competing school subject priorities, budget cuts and the shortest lead time for development we have seen ever. 

 

Everyone should be aware that the government reformulated GCSEs to make them harder to be in line with international standards.  2018 is the first cohort of the new Food Preparation and Nutrition GCSE - this was indeed the only new GCSE brought in by the government in their committment to make sure that every young person had the opportunity to learn to cook and learn about nutrition. As the first cohort, the candidates have not been disadvantaged as OFQUAL and exam boards have made sure that results are fair compared to previous years.

 

The Food Teachers Centre attended an OFQUAL briefing to hear Sally Collier, head of the Ofqual assessment, reassure teachers, parents and students – saying that although the new exams were more testing, the final grades would be fairly distributed and in the same way as in previous years.

 

 

Here is a visual map of England by OFQUAL that shows the national results (best results being darkest)

 

County	Number of Students Entered	Average Grades 4-9 (A-C)
Northumberland	365	51.9
Cumbria	500	56.4
Tyne and Wear	685	65.5
Durham	580	67.7
Lancashire	1455	64.9
North Yorkshire	1145	63.6
East Riding of Yorkshire	490	64.7
West Yorkshire	2145	64.5
Greater Manchester	2740	63.1
Merseyside	845	61.5
Cheshire	915	61.6
Derbyshire	980	58.0
South Yorkshire	1040	59.2
Lincolnshire	845	59.5
Nottinghamshire	1000	57.3
Staffordshire	860	58.8
Shropshire	495	63.9
West Midlands	2375	55.7
Warwickshire	625	69.3
Leicestershire	1080	62.0
Rutland	95	64.6
Norfolk	975	62.5
Cambridgeshire	560	60.2
Northamptonshire	650	62.7
Gloucestershire	965	63.5
Worcestershire	755	58.2
Herefordshire	340	57.5
Oxfordshire	575	64.6
Buckinghamshire	780	62.6
Bedfordshire	520	61.4
Hertfordshire	1415	70.1
Suffolk	1015	65.6
Essex	1790	60.6
Greater London	4445	61.0
Berkshire	750	71.0
Wiltshire	630	61.6
Somerset	1050	59.9
Bristol	160	69.6
Devon	1265	58.6
Cornwall	700	62.5
Dorset	965	68.4
Hampshire	1905	60.3
Isle of Wight	90	68.5
West Sussex	795	61.7
Surrey	1135	72.6
East Sussex	800	62.5
Kent	1250	64.2
England Total	47540	62.3

 

Food Preparation and Nutrition Grades 4-9	62.3%
Art and Design	75%
Science (biology, chemistry, physics)	90% ??*
History	63.7%
Geography	64.5%
Maths	59.6%
English	62%
Modern Foreign Languages	69.7%
Music	74.7%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 120 guided learning hours before assessement takes place
• Sufficient preparation and practice time ahead of NEA release to candidates
• Adequate provision for practical work for NEA 2
• Adequate revision and practice schedule for the written exam, including school wide exam technique workshops

4. Seek help to improve your teaching and preparation of students

• attend your regional NEA Together events in the autumn and network with more experienced teachers. These are advertised regularly in the Facebook group, on our website and on our Eventbrite Pages

• register for our on-line training or face to face training days to help you improve your teaching. These are advertised regularly in the Facebook group, on our website and on our Eventbrite Pages. We suggest that you make a case in your school to acces valuable traning :
• • Attend 'Food Boost' on Saturday 3rd November - we will be reviewing all the exam results and there are workshops for each exam course to help you improve and gain clarity and great ideas 
  • Attend 'GCSE Boost for levels 1-4' if you are concerned that your lower ability and borderline candidates would benefit from planned interventions
  • Attend 'Schools Game Changer' if you are looking for extra NEA 2 help
  • Register and Learn at your own pace with 'Barbara Monk's Food Science Tutorials' if you need help in building your subject knowledge and ideas for teaching how to apply the science.

• register for our free mentoring programme, so that you can be matched with an experienced teacher who teaches the same board, who will be able to offer you advice and guidance. Sign up here.

 

 

 

 

 

• Latest NEA and Unit Assessment advice
• Getting to grips with NEA and Unit assessment for Year 11 –what does it mean, how to prepare for and plan assessment
• How to maximise marks, challenge most able and support all learners
• Resources for effective preparation and teaching

• AQA GCSE – Barbara Monks, Food Teachers Centre
• OCR GCSE – Sandra Heinze, Hall Mead School
• EDUQAS GCSE – Jacqui Keepin, Food Teachers Centre
• NCFE Food and Cookery L1/2– Caroline Gallagher, NCFE Curriculum Officer
• BTEC L1-3 and Home Cooking Skills – Melanie Williams, Pearson/BTEC Subject Advisor for Skills Qualifications
• WJEC Level 3 Diploma Food Science and Nutrition – Sheila Watts, Waddesdon School
• WJEC Hospitality and Catering Level 1-2 – Judith Shackell, Brookfield Community School 
• Special Needs - We will also have a Special Needs teaching strand facilitated by Sarah Badzire, Clare Mount Specialist Sports College

Fine-tune and support your personal skills, from highly skilled university culinary skills tutors

• Food presentation, styling and photography
• Tricky pastries, pasta and enriched doughs
•  Knife skills with meat, fish and vegetables
• Sauces, soufflés, setting, toppings, layers and fillings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Diet and health
• Food Origins, choices and labelling
• Cooking skills and food science
• Food safety

 

 

 

 

 

These two books are a must for any school, as they contain key information, worksheets and practice papers for either AQA or EDUQAS courses. Take your pick!

This new EDUQAS book has similar content to AQA version, but has EDUQAS style exam papers (two) and the content is divided into sections that reflect the EDUQAS specification.  Schools price £3.99

 

Based on new research that proves repeated practice testing is more effective than repeated study, this revision series is guaranteed to help students achieve the best results.

• Clear and accessible explanations
• Concise revision notes
• Seven practice opportunities for every topic covered in GCSE.