Orla’s favourite Food - a fact of life resources!

Meet Orla Condon, the latest member of the Food - a fact of life team! A teacher of secondary food and science, Orla shares her favourite Food - a fact of life resources.

Orla’s favourite Food - a fact of life resources!

Orla Jan 25

Orla at the FFL Sheffield conference (Jan '25)

About me

I think I better start with an introduction as to who I am; my name is Orla Condon and I am a home economics, food and nutrition and science teacher. My background is in food education and I trained in St. Angela’s College, Sligo, Ireland.

Growing up I always had a love of food, cooking and nutrition. I adored my Home Economics lessons and often came home from school with a lecture for my family with new information I had learnt about food and nutrition. They tolerated my lectures as my interest in cooking also developed during this time and they were happy to be taste testers for the many dishes which I cooked! This passion for food, along with some inspiring teachers during my time in school, led me to my career in food education.

The role of an educator is extremely rewarding and seeing students develop their confidence and skills as they progress gave me great job satisfaction. I particularly enjoyed working with students with additional needs and the challenge that was making learning accessible, enjoyable and exciting for them!

I have always had an interest in developing professionally and pursuing different opportunities within the world of education, food and nutrition. My interest has led me to a new role with the British Nutrition Foundation. I have recently joined the Education Team as an Education Officer. I am very excited to experience a new role within food education, and to bring my insights from the classroom to Food - a fact of life.

 

My top five!

1. Explore Food

I am sure many teachers can relate to the issues around funding nutritional analysis software or using free trials with limitations! The Food - a fact of life tool, Explore Food, is an excellent resource to introduce students to recipe analysis. It can be used to calculate the nutritional analysis of a single recipe or for a specific diet. I found this resource useful when completing NEA 2 in GCSE Food and Nutrition. I think it is effective to introduce recipe analysis to students before they complete their GCSE coursework, and Food - a fact of life has many recipe modification tasks which you can use.

 

Explore Food

2. Kahoot Quizzes (5 a day)

During one of my previous teaching roles, I worked in an ‘iPad school’, where students completed their learning using iPads. I learned the importance of being able to adapt my teaching skills and classroom resources. I found that a lot of learners enjoyed using technology-based methods of assessment, and if it included some aspect of a challenge where they could compete, even better! I often used the Food – a fact of life Kahoot Quizzes (especially the 5 A DAY quiz!). My students engaged with them brilliantly by themselves, or when using the group function with Kahoot. I used them at the end of a topic to check for understanding and sometimes offer some positive points or a small incentive for the winners. If accessing computers is an issue, you could use mini whiteboards to collate the answers from students, that works well too!

 

 

 

3. Practical activity evaluation

Evaluation is a crucial step in developing the practical cookery skills of students, especially as they progress into GCSE years. The Practical activity evaluation is a template which students can use to evaluate their dishes.

I love that it is editable so you can modify it to suit the ability of your class. If you are using the sheet for a GCSE class, you can edit the skills box to show the GCSE food preparation skills that are appropriate for your exam board.

Another tip for using this evaluation is to consider laminating the template for younger year groups. They can then complete it at the end of a practical food lesson, or as an activity in another lesson after they have cooked.

4. The Eatwell Guide

The Eatwell Guide is a topic which all food teachers will deliver to their students. I introduced the topic by showing students the Eatwell Guide presentation and Eatwell Guide video. I also enjoyed using the Eatwell Challenge which is an interactive game where students must place different foods into the correct parts of the Eatwell Guide, it keeps score so students can test their knowledge. I often used the My diet worksheet to consolidate learning for students, this worksheet works well with whiteboards too. I liked getting students to use the Blank Eatwell Guide sheet and draw foods from the meals they ate in each food group. I found this provided a visual guide to help them decide if they were eating in line with the Eatwell Guide recommendations.

 

 

EG chall

5. Nutrition labelling
 
There are some fantastic resources around nutrition labelling on Food - a fact of life. I found the Front of pack nutrition label cards and accompanying, Front of pack nutrition labels worksheet, to be an effective way to get students analysing food labels and the information they can include. As an extension task, students can also practice creating a food label using Explore Food and the Nutrition labels worksheet which asks students to create a food label for spaghetti bolognese. I used to create a set of success criteria, or a checklist, for students, to help them understand what information they should include on their label.

 

nut labels

What are your Food - a fact of life favourites?

I'd love to hear about the Food - a fact of life resources other teachers out there use. If you have got a favourite, share it with us on X (formerly twitter) @Foodafactoflife

 

 

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