Leiths Lessons: Partnering with Bruern Abbey

School: Bruern Abbey, Oxfordshire, England  
Course: CTH Level 2 Certificate in Culinary Skills
Teacher: Will Walker  
Students: 15 students (Year 1: 2025-26)

In October, Dame Prue Leith, founder of Leiths School of Food and Wine, visited our Partner School Bruern Abbey to officially open their new kitchen facilities.

Pies for Prue

The day began with students preparing the different elements of a delicious Chicken Pie with Veloute Sauce & Puff Pastry Lid with Bruern Teacher of Cookery, Will Walker, and Leiths Education’s CEO, Maria Dunbar, who spent almost twenty years working as a food teacher. After they’d finished prep, the boys enjoyed a Q&A session with Dame Prue about careers in food and the importance of learning to cook at a young age.

The students returned to the kitchen to assemble and bake the pies alongside Maria, Dame Prue and teacher Will, who, with a degree in French and German, originally trained as a secondary modern foreign languages teacher. Will enthuses what a huge success the course has been at Bruern:

‘The Level 2 Certificate in Culinary Skills has been immensely popular since its introduction at Bruern; it is already the most popular optional subject at the school in terms of numbers of pupils choosing to follow the course. It is universally loved by all the pupils on the course, as well as staff and parents.

‘The boys have the opportunity to get in the kitchen every single lesson and are not overburdened with huge amounts of written work. All the recipes, without exception, have been enjoyed hugely by the pupils (both cooking and eating), though I would say the Carbonara and the Chicken Pie are top the list of the recipes the boys have cooked thus far.’

Our CEO returned to the classroom

Maria, Leiths Education CEO, was delighted to return to her roots.

‘Having spent almost twenty years as a food teacher, I cherish every opportunity to get back into the teaching kitchen with students at our Partner Schools. I had a wonderful day at Bruern Abbey seeing our Level 2 qualification in practice and supporting their students making pies for Prue.

‘Their teacher Will is proof that Leiths lessons really can be delivered by anyone with a passion for teaching the essential life skill of cooking a meal from scratch. As always, it comes back to the fact that every single recipe, lesson plan and teaching resource has been designed by teachers for teachers. Plus, the team at Leiths are on hand to support you every step of the way. Of course, it also helps that food is always the lesson that every student loves too.’

Getting every child in the country cooking

Before opening the new kitchen and watching the boys make their pies, Dame Prue took part in a Q&A session with students. Speaking to the group, she said: ‘Your teacher must know the joy of seeing somebody developed from really being quite nervous and not good to really doing it well. You guys are so lucky because somebody is teaching you how to cook. If we can get every child in the country able to cook and actually enjoying food, liking good food, liking healthy food, and being able to eat a vegetable, then we wouldn’t have any health problems would we?’

The partnership between Leiths and Bruern Abbey allows students to gain a GCSE-equivalent CTH Level 2 Certificate in Culinary Skills while still at school. The course covers fundamental cooking techniques, kitchen safety and food preparation skills and forms part of Leiths’ complete culinary pathway with curriculums from KS1-KS5 and on to higher education too.

If you’re interested in becoming a Leiths Partner School, find out more here.

Bruern Abbey will welcome girls into its Prep School from September 2026, with the Senior School following in September 2027.