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Real Bread in schools

The Campaign is working to help Real Bread regain its rightful place in our schools - both in the classroom and on the menu.


 Many hands make loaf work

Elsewhere on our site:

Bread making workshops for teachers

As part of our work to encourage more schools to add Lessons in Loaf to their timetables, the Real Bread Campaign is organising a series of bread making workshops around the UK.

Led by some of the most well-respected bakers and educators in the country, these are fantastic opportunities for teachers to gain skills and inspiration to pass on to their pupils. Each half or full day class will cover basic Real Bread dough making by hand, and will be accompanied by advice on different ways to fit bread making into the school day,as well as suggestions for follow-on lessons.

Forthcoming workshops

Bristol 21 February 2012

In support of the Campaign's work, Square Food Foundation in Bristol is hosting a special one-off workshop for school teachers wanting to pass on bread making skills in the classroom.  The workshop is open to public sector cooks wanting to put Real Bread on the Menu.

Sorry - booking for this event is now closed.

Past workshops

London 25 January 2012

In support of the Real Bread Campaign, on Wednesday 25 January Katie Caldesi ran a half day workshop at her Marylebone cookery school La Cucina Caldesi to help sixteen school teachers run Real Bread making classes in their own schools. 

A cookery book author and well-known face to viewers of BBC TV shows including Saturday Kitchen and MasterChef, Katie the session at her cookery school’s purpose-built training kitchen. The teachers learned to make a basic Real Bread dough, plus healthy pizza. 

For pictures from the workshop, click here.

Lessons in Loaf

Lessons in Loaf is the Real Bread Campaign’s scheme to encourage people who can bake bread to share this valuable life skill with children in schools.

The accompanying handbook goes beyond the fun and practical life skill of baking, containing lesson plans, recipes, information and ideas to help teachers get children at Key Stage 2 thinking and asking questions about the food they eat, where it comes from and how it is made.

What

This national scheme works to support Real Bread bakers pass bread making skills on to the next generation in local primary schools.

Where the Campaign has found a professional Real Bread baker volunteering to teach a bread making class, it contacts schools that are local to the bakery to pass on this offer.  In addition, the handbook includes advice to help teachers run Lessons in Loaf without the aid of a professional baker.

Contents include

Funding
Responsibilities to be agreed between the school and baker
Criminal Records Bureau checks
Working space
Timings
Example lesson plans
Ingredients
Equipment
Suggested core lessons
Core Lessons
Lesson 1: What is Real Bread? (basic)
Lesson 2: The essential ingredients of Real Bread (Basic)
Lesson 3: Health and safety in the kitchen
Lesson 4: Making Real Bread
Lesson 5: What did we learn?
Further Lessons in Loaf
Lesson 6: How are different loaves made?
Lesson 7: More about flour
Lesson 8: Bread and health
Lesson 9: Real Breads of Britain
Lesson 10: Special Real Breads from around the world
Experiments
Gluten washing experiment
Yeast balloons
Indoor wheat growing
Yeast farming
Further suggestions for curriculum links
Worksheets
Useful books and links

What people have said

'I just ran a Lesson in Loaf at my local primary school and it was fantastic to see their faces light up and with messy hands to really get what Real Bread is all about.'

Tom Herbert of Hobbs House Bakery, Campaign ambassador, recently seen as a member of the chamber of commerce on BBC One’s Turn Back Time: the High Street, and his own BBC Four documentary, In Search of a Perfect Loaf.

'Ana Jones spent two mornings in school as part of class 2's healthy eating/sandwich work as part of the Ourselves topic. The first session was an interactive master class on making different sorts of breads using the flour from The Watermill.  The children made rolls with Ana's help.  In the second session, after they had taken part in a blind tasting to choose the bread they wanted to use, they made a number of loaves and then used the bread to make sandwiches.  They chose the fillings after some market research and then made the sandwiches themselves.  Finally they put them into packaging that they had designed.  They had a great time and lots of fun!'

Lynn Harrison, Head Teacher, Culgaith School, Cumbria

'By the way, you'll be teaching sixteen children, not twelve. Oh, and we can't get the gas in the school kitchen ovens to turn on.' These were the words that greeted Hlene Carey of the Soil Association and me upon arrival at Poplar School in Merton to teach some pupils to bake Real Bread.  Thankfully, we found someone to sort out the gas supply and the class went brilliantly. Even the chap who either missed pretty much every instruction I gave (or chose to treat them as optional suggestions) managed to turn out a loaf of which any baker would be proud. The following morning, their Real Bread was quickly snapped up at the school's farmers' market they'd set up as part of the Soil Association's Farm Academy scheme. Pictures: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Chris Young, the Real Bread Campaign

'I felt it was crucial to give the children a fun active role on which to hang their memories of what goes into making bread. This approach was taken into the weekly sessions; twelve children each Tuesday afternoon had the chance to handle pre-prepared dough, form rolls and other shapes. Then make dough from scratch with each child having a piece to take home. In an hour and a half we have managed to show the start and finish of the process, albeit in reverse order. Yesterday I was presented with a scrapbook full of photos of our baking sessions and thank you letters from the children. They seem to have enjoyed the experience and for the present have an enthusiasm for baking bread. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would be glad to be involved in the future of Lessons in Loaf.'

Ken Horne, owner of Pinpastry in Devon

'We have had a great start to our bread making topic for the whole school. Reception and Key Stage 1 have been reading The Little Red Hen - I have been busy making bread rolls with each class – and they have also been doing investigations leaving out a vital ingredient to see what happens!!  Richard from Paignton Bakery came in to do a demonstration to the whole school in assembly and answered questions – he was fantastic, really passionate about his trade.  The children and teachers have been really inspired and enthused!!'

Sam Ward, Collaton Primary School

'There were 59 year 5/6 children, aged 9-11 who took part in baking the bread.  The sessions were taught at the right level and we felt the background information and recipes were very useful.  The children enjoyed the practical sessions and commented "a fantastic experience" and "my parents enjoyed the bread-they were so proud of me."  Many thanks once again for giving our children this amazing opportunity.'

Red Lake Community School, Hastings (taught by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou, the School of Artisan Food)

'I would just like to express my thanks and appreciation for this. Paul and Gail [of Paul's Bakery in Melton Mowbray] came in about 10 days ago and worked all day (literally with no break!) with a group of 15 children. Paul came at the crack of dawn to bring his bread oven and grinders. Gail gave up a day as well to organise and work with the children. As I said in my original email, our children desperately need to learn in this way. Their eyes were well and truly opened as to the fruits and vegetables that were provided. The opportunities for the children to grind, measure, mix, knead, bake and chop were invaluable. We all had a fabulous, if tiring day and I would again like to pass on my thanks for your part in this. It is such a pity that the funding is not available to make it a regular occurrence as I know that all of the children in our school would benefit enormously. I hope that if there is funding in the future that this activity and the wonderful links with local businesses such as Paul's are shouted from the rooftops - brilliant!'

Anne Jeal, Deputy head teacher, The Grove Primary School, Melton Mowbray

Chefs Adopt a School

October 2011

'Chefs Adopt a School has included bread making within its programme in support of the Real Bread Campaign since 2010. Chefs Adopt a School firmly believes in the holistic teaching of food and cookery and bread making is an excellent way to teach children about food from field to fork. Chefs Adopt a School’s Executive Chef, Idris Caldora MCA, devised a recipe and method that works within the CAAS timetable, not to mention timeframe. The Chefs Adopt a School resource pack was updated to include the bread recipe Idris uses, which is laid out in such a way as to encourage teachers, children and parents to be able to make bread at home. To date, bread making sessions have taken place with over 2000 children at twenty schools.

Chefs Adopt a School is the educational charity run by the Academy of Culinary Arts, which provides experiential education for school children delivered by trained professional chefs. The chefs teach children about food: where it comes from, how to cook it, why we need it and its impact on the environment. They instil knowledge and understanding about health, nutrition, hygiene, cooking skills and the enjoyment of food. Chefs Adopt a School has been established for 21 years and currently reaches over 21,000 schoolchildren each year.'

Find out more at the CAAS website and by following @ChefsAdoptaSch on twitter.

Keep Kids Cooking

Our sister project The Children's Food Campaign is working hard to keep cooking lessons on the school curriculum.

The coalition Government is conducting a review of the National Curriculum. This could result in the current requirement for secondary school children to receive at least some classes in basic cooking skills (such as baking Real Bread) could be lost. Without basic cooking skills, people are forced to rely on processed ready meals or fast food, which is often unhealthy.

The Real Bread Campaign supports Keep Kids Cooking, alongside celebrity chefs including Jamie Oliver, Raymond Blanc, Ainsley Harriott and Gary Rhodes, and respected medical organisations such as the British Medical Association.

Click here to read more about this issue and how you can take action.

Sister projects

In addtion to the Real Bread Campaign, Sustain runs several projects that work on issues of food in the public sector.

  • Good Food for our Money: calls on government to introduce mandatory health, animal welfare, ethical and environmental standards for the food purchased with your taxes.
  • The Children's Food Campaign:  fights for good food and real food education in every school; protection for children from junk food marketing; and clear food labelling that everyone, including children, can understand.
  • Good Food on the Public Plate: a London Food Board flagship project that works with London's schools, hospitals, universities and large public sector employers to help increase the amount of sustainable food used in the public sector.