Join us for our Open Evening at Leiths on Thursday 12th March 2026, 6:30–8:30pm, and discover how the Culinary Diploma can launch your career in food.
Join us for our Open Evening at Leiths on Thursday 12th March 2026, 6:30–8:30pm, and discover how the Culinary Diploma can launch your career in food.
Our recommendation on Health:
Embed weekly practical cookery lessons across KS1 & KS2 using Leiths resources. This is a cost- free, scalable way to achieve health goals and reduce long-term NHS pressures.
Our recommendation on Education:
Use practical cookery to demonstrate real-world applications of core curriculum subjects, such as maths and science, making efficient use of curriculum time.
Our recommendation on Life Skills:
Implement Leiths KS1 & KS2 cookery
programmes, which form the first two stages of Leiths’ complete culinary pathway, ensuring skills progression across the key stages and preparing children for life and future careers.
Our recommendation on Teacher Training:
Deploy dual training provision nationally – roll out Leiths’ comprehensive programme of KS1 & KS2 high-quality cookery resources to enable all pre- and primary school teachers and support staff to deliver practical cookery lessons with confidence. Support training of lead cookery teaching specialists with Leiths’ unique Level 7 accelerated food teacher training pathway.
From September 2024, 45 socioeconomically diverse British primary schools took part in a year-long study designed by Leiths Education. The study was designed to research the teaching and learning outcomes of their high-quality practical cookery and food education resources for KS1 & KS2 pupils.
A total of 4,605 primary age pupils and their teaching staff took part, making the Leiths Education Primary School Cookery Pilot the largest ever study into the impact of high-quality food education resources on primary age children in the UK at the time of publication.
Participating schools were able to use Leiths Education’s newly-released primary programmes free of charge for one year. The resources have been designed as a mappable progression of culinary skills to lead into a KS3-KS5 pathway. Accessed via a user-friendly portal, the video and written resources were created by experienced food technology teachers.
Lessons include a step-by-step cookalong video for an affordable and nutritious recipe taught by a Leiths chef teacher, teaching and learning notes with cross-curricular links and an interactive pupil worksheet. Downloadable recipe sheets, PowerPoints and scalable shopping lists complete the package. In return for using the resources, Leiths Education asked participating schools to complete one survey at the beginning of the programme and one at the end.
The results demonstrate the significant impact of practical cookery lessons on children’s understanding of healthy eating, their early understanding of the practical applications of STEM subjects like maths and science, and their development of crucial life skills – chiming with core Government aims outlined in their manifesto and recommendations made in their recent Curriculum and Assessment Review.
Leiths programme goal: Establish lifelong healthy eating habits through practical food education
Supporting the Government’s goal to… Raise the “healthiest generation of children in history” and deliver Curriculum Review priorities to focus on “learning about food and nutrition, including how to cook healthy, nutritious meals.”
Leiths proven solution… 41% of pupils improved their understanding of healthy eating through the Pilot. Teachers reported children excitedly sharing recipes at home, demanding ingredients from parents to recreate meals themselves, and some pupils even asking for recipes so they could teach their own families – demonstrating genuine behaviour change that extends beyond the classroom into family life.
Teacher Voice:
“One pupil that was a very fussy eater had gone home and eaten rice for the first time. She tried peas, which were in the vegetable soup. Her Mum couldn’t praise us enough that a) she’d tried the food and b) she’d asked them to go and buy it – so it made their life easier at home too.”
Naomi Godrey
Harwood Hill JMI
Leiths programme goal: Use practical cookery as a cross-curricular vehicle to deliver core curriculum subjects
Supporting the Government’s goal to… Build an education system that prepares children for life, work and the future, and improve maths education, without adding curriculum burden to already stretched timetables.
Leiths proven solution… Teachers successfully used Leiths practical cookery resources to deliver maths, science, PSHE, DT and languages across the programme. The real-world context made abstract concepts tangible.
Teacher Voice:
“What you cover in cookery ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of subjects so it’s worth the curriculum time. Measuring and weighing is on our maths curriculum but to make something you’re going to eat is very motivating. Year 6 wanted their recipe to work so they were being very precise, asking ‘Is that exactly it?’.”
Lauren Maggs
Teacher at Shephalbury Park Primary School
Leiths programme goal: Develop essential practical skills and food knowledge for independent living
Supporting the Government’s goal to… Add curriculum detail as identified in the Curriculum and Assessment Review by providing comprehensive food and nutrition education across KS1-KS3 that develops the knowledge and skills pupils need to live a healthy, balanced life and for future careers.
Leiths proven solution… 82% of teachers noted an improvement in children’s cooking skills through the Pilot. In areas of significant deprivation, teachers reported that Leiths resources filled a critical gap – providing the structured skills progression that ad hoc delivery had never achieved. Leiths is the only education provider offering a complete cookery education pathway from age four upwards with tried-and-tested curriculums proven to deliver results across diverse school communities.
Teacher Voice:
“With previous resources, the delivery has been ad hoc and hasn’t offered a progression of skills. We’re in an area
of really significant deprivation, so we wanted to put the Leiths Resources into our PSHE curriculum because we know it’s an area of weakness in our school community.”
Lorna Watson
Deputy Headteacher St Paul’s Church of England School
Leiths programme goal: Build teacher capacity to deliver high-quality food education
Supporting the Government’s goal to… address the lack of specialist teachers and implement the new food and nutrition Curriculum and Assessment Review recommendations from September 2028.
Leiths proven solution… 53% of teachers reported greater understanding of how practical cookery can be delivered in their school through the Pilot. The step-by-step video-led resources with Leiths chef tutor guidance removed barriers for teachers that lacked confidence in subject delivery.
Teacher Voice:
“The step-by-step videos with Chef AJ were easy to use and really took the stress out of how to teach particular skills and recipes – I don’t think I would have had the confidence to offer the after-school club without this resource.”
Freya Geall
Learning Support Assistant at Flax Bourton School