Raising the profile of Food & Nutrition at Stamford School

School: Stamford School, Stamford, England 
Course: Leiths Level 3: 27 students (Year 1: 2025-26), 26 students (Year 2: 2026-27)
Teachers: Abbie Mann (head of food & nutrition), Louisa Gregory (classroom leader), Rebecca Jordan (teacher)

When Abbie Mann describes her ambitions for food & nutrition at Stamford School, she is thinking beyond the kitchen. ‘It is also about raising the profile of food & nutrition as an academically rigorous and highly valuable subject,’ she says, ‘rather than simply a practical option.’

That ambition has found a natural home in the Leiths Level 3 professional cookery programme, which Stamford introduced to its sixth form in September 2025. This year, 27 students are enrolled – a figure that reflects both the appetite for the course and the department’s confidence in delivering it at scale.

The decision to bring Leiths in was not taken lightly. For Chris Hawkins, who has spent 38 years at Stamford and is stepping down as head of sixth form at the end of this term, it has been one of the highlights of her final year. ‘Watching our students embrace the course, develop impressive practical skills, and grow in confidence has been incredibly rewarding. Seeing their enthusiasm and success has given me a real insight into the quality of the Leiths experience and has undoubtedly inspired me to embark on the Diploma myself.’

For Louisa Gregory, a classroom leader at Stamford who teaches the course day to day, that quality comes down to how the resources are built. ‘Leiths’ resources are created by education professionals and rooted in professional culinary training,’ she says. ‘They emphasise technique, precision and reflection, giving students a more authentic and aspirational learning experience.’ The result is students who take genuine pride in what they produce, finding in the course a different context in which to apply the same rigour they bring to the rest of their academic programme.

Both teachers are clear that the benefits extend well beyond the kitchen. The skills students develop – time management, independence, resilience and the ability to produce consistent, high-quality work – serve them across their education and well into adult life. ‘Learning to cook supports health, independence, confidence and wellbeing,’ says Abbie, ‘while also helping young people develop a positive relationship with food.’ For students carrying a full academic timetable alongside their Leiths studies, that breadth of development matters considerably.

Since September 2025, the programme has already begun to shift what food & nutrition means at Stamford. The course has generated significant interest across the sixth form, and Abbie is candid about what she hopes to achieve: a subject understood not as an alternative to academic rigour but as an expression of it. The Leiths partnership, she says, has helped make that case in the most practical and compelling way possible.

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