Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve the quality of education on (a) cooking and (b) budgeting.

Cooking and nutrition is a discrete strand of the national curriculum for design and technology which was introduced as part of the 2014 design and technology curriculum and is compulsory for pupils from 5 to 14 years old. The curriculum aims to teach children how to cook, with an emphasis on savoury dishes, and how to apply the principles of healthy eating and nutrition. It recognises that cooking is an important life skill that will help children to feed themselves, and others, healthy and affordable food. Alongside this, a food preparation and nutrition GCSE was introduced in September 2016 which requires pupils to understand and apply the principles of food science, nutrition and healthy eating when preparing and cooking food. Furthermore, the Levelling Up White Paper confirmed the department’s focus on school food quality and food education.

On budgeting, this is covered under financial education which is part of the maths and the citizenship curricula, demonstrating the importance that the government places on this topic. The maths curriculum provides content that develops pupils’ knowledge and financial capability to make important decisions about mortgages and loan repayments. Financial literacy is also a statutory part of the citizenship curriculum for 11 to 16 year olds and pupils are taught the functions and uses of money. In both subjects, pupils are taught about topics that support personal budgeting, money management and understanding financial risk. The department wants to support schools to deliver good quality financial education and we work regularly with stakeholders to support them to do so.