Chef in the classroom

I cook with children of all ages in the school, from nursery to 11-year-olds in Year 6. Generally speaking, our sessions are related to a particular curriculum topic that the children are learning about in class, so there is plenty of variety in the types of things we make.

Real Bread features quite often, in one way or another, at Charlton Manor Primary. It is great because it gives children something very hands-on and tactile to make. While one group is following the recipe, other children can be making something else. For example, we recently did a session that was focused on Cornwall and its history, which we looked at through two specialities of the county - saffron buns and the pasty. Each half of the class made one of the recipes. The bread makers made dough in the morning, which proved over lunchtime, ready for them to shape, and it was baked for them to collect at the end of the day.

Triple taste test

In 2024, I ran a session loosely inspired by The Great Fire of London in 1666, which started in a bakery. We talked about how people might have made bread before the invention of commercial yeast in the 19^th century. I got the class to create a sourdough starter in the classroom, feeding it over the course of several days to observe the changes in smell and texture etc. At the end of the week, we did a comparison, with the children making three loaves – one with baker’s yeast, one with their sourdough starter, and another using baking powder. This created an opportunity to talk about yeast and what is does in bread, what those bubbles in the loaf actually are! As well as this bit of science, the children were able to taste the loaves to see which one they prefer.

I run three afterschool clubs a week and the first session of every half term is always bread week. I've done many different types and styles of bread; bagels, focaccia, tear ’n’ share, dinner rolls - basically anything small or flat enough to be baked in about 15 to 20 minutes. I usually prepare a dough in advance, which the children shape, then we leave it to prove again. They then make a dough themselves, so that they get to experience following the process, before we bake the first batch that they shaped. I tend to put the second dough in the fridge and use it with the following day’s afterschool club group. 

Start ‘em young

We do a lot of bread making with the nursery and reception children as it is good for developing their gross motor skills and hand strength when kneading. We can colour it (with spinach, for example) to use a bit like Play Doh and have fun making shapes, like animals. Children enjoy the team effort of each rolling a tentacle for octopus bread, or segments the body for caterpillar bread. Another fun one was using two different coloured doughs that the children layered in a tin, which creates a giraffe print pattern once it was baked and sliced.

Real Bread is definitely a very versatile (and fun) teaching aid, which can be made in the classroom, staffroom, or even outside. If you don’t have access to an oven at school, perhaps the children can make flatbreads for you to cook in a frying pan on a portable stove. It should be said that whatever bread children make, it always goes down very well, even wholemeal!

Real Bread in your school?
If you're putting Real Bread on the menu, in the classroom and beyond, we want to hear from you!

Lessons in Loaf
The Campaign’s grow-a-loaf guidebook includes a whole section of further information and inspiration for school teachers and cooks on weaving breadmaking into a school day, and using bread as a topic across a range of curriculum subjects. Bake Your Lawn is available from our website. 

Originally published in True Loaf magazine issue 62, April 2025.

See also

• Baking our lawn in The Broads
• Toast for good health
• Having a field day
• Playing fields of wheat
• From seed to sourdough
• Seed to sandwich in Shaky Toon
• Bakers’ bush
• A breaducation
• Class act