Yr 9 & Yr 10 Fish Heroes
On 29th November we were lucky enough to welcome Simon from the Food Teachers Centre and Emma the Girly Fishmonger into school for the launch of the new Fish Heroes programme supported by the Fishmongers Company and Tarbetts Fishmongers.
Our Yr 9 and 10 Food & Nutrition and Hospitality & Catering students were taught by Emma about the differences in fish from different areas, how to fillet a Plaice and also how to prepare Squid.
Yr 9 Jack volunteered to demonstrate how to prepare the squid alongside Emma and made a great job of it.
As Emma was filleting and demonstrating, Simon cooked up the Plaice making battered goujons and then fried the squid making Calamari for the students to taste.
Next it was the students turn to gut and fillet their own fish prior to cooking a dish. Simon started by reminding the students the filleting process and then demonstrated the recipe, Pan Fried Mackerel with Sauté Spinach and Ratatouille. The students were given their own Mackerel and were helped in gutting and filleting by Emma and Simon. Whilst filleting the fish the students learned how to recognise a fresh fish and how to remove the tricky small bones.
Mrs Wilkinson told her students that by using fish which they had filleted themselves in their controlled assessments it could access the higher grades at GCSE.
Louise Davies, founder of the Food Teachers Centre, which operates globally connecting Food teachers and sharing ideas and best practice, explained how she had learned from their teachers that more than half of students had never eaten or cooked with fish. To address this issue, the Food Teacher’s Centre has organised a directory of fish suppliers willing to donate fish to schools for food lessons and also 'fish heroes' like the Girly Fishmonger Emma.
We are thankful to have been given the opportunity to be the first school in the country to take advantage of the fish heroes programme, our staff and students had a really enjoyable day and learned a lot about preparing and cooking fish.
