Food and Nutrition education
Food and nutrition education in schools helps children and young people understand where food comes from, how it is produced, and how to prepare it confidently and safely. By developing practical skills and informed habits early in life, learners are better equipped to navigate an increasingly complex food environment, make choices that suit their needs and values, and contribute to more resilient and responsible food systems. This education fosters lifelong wellbeing, strengthens community connections around food, and supports a more informed and engaged society.
However, food education should also reach beyond the curriculum. A whole-school approach is essential because it creates a consistent environment where healthy and sustainable choices are supported, modelled, and reinforced throughout every aspect of school life.
Our initiatives in schools
We’re on a mission to improve children’s health and wellbeing by making sure they get the best food education possible.
The British Nutrition Foundation’s Education team provides curriculum expertise, training and resources that build knowledge, skills and confidence in food, diet, and health so that children and young people know how to plan, cook and eat in a healthy sustainable way.
Through our flagship education programme, Food - a fact of life, we are working to instil a culture of healthy eating and food literacy in children and young people, helping them to apply their knowledge in meaningful ways.
We help schools integrate comprehensive food and nutrition education into their curriculum, so that pupils get a well-rounded understanding of the importance of nutrition in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Our work is informed by members of four Education Working Groups in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
If you are a headteacher, senior leader or governor and would like to know how Food – a fact of life can support your crucial role in creating and embedding a great food culture in your primary school, why not have a look at our food implementation toolkit?
If you would like to find out more about how the British Nutrition Foundation’s education team can support food education and a whole school approach to food, as well as providing training for teachers and other staff in schools, contact us at education.org.uk.
Working closely with teachers, we aim to make food and nutrition education an integral part of the learning experience, with age-appropriate materials and resources for early years, primary and secondary pupils.
Claire Theobald, Education Services Manager, British Nutrition Foundation
Food - a fact of life
The cornerstone of our work in schools is the Food - a fact of life programme. The programme meets the requirements of food and nutrition curricula across the UK. It also aligns with other subjects including design and technology, health and wellbeing, science, numeracy, literacy, geography, religious education, and RSE and health education.
Food - a fact of life is founded on a whole school approach. It provides advice and guidance on policy matters relating to the dietary requirements of children and young people and provision of food throughout the school day.
This dynamic and interactive education programme is themed around healthy eating, cooking, and where food comes from. It is designed to inspire pupils of all ages with engaging lessons and resources, such as quizzes, videos, and interactive games. The programme also supports trainee, new, non-specialist and more experienced teachers through guidance and professional development.
Food - a fact of life covers essential topics, such as the principles of a healthy balanced diet, how to plan, cook and prepare food, and food provenance and production. Its versatility allows teachers to tailor content to specific needs and foster a deeper understanding of food that extends beyond the classroom.
The Food - a fact of life programme cultivates critical thinking and decision-making skills, empowering children and young people to independently make informed food choices.
We also provide careers information about working in 'food' for schools, pupils and parents.
Food - a fact of life is managed by the British Nutrition Foundation, in partnership with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).
Collaboration with others
To ensure the breadth, depth, consistency and rigour of food and nutrition education across the UK, we work with practising teachers, universities, government, awarding organisations, and other stakeholders such as CLEAPSS and the Design & Technology Association.
Monitoring and evaluation
We evaluate feedback and analyse data to measure the impact of our work. This enables us to gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of our training and resources and refine these, as needed.
Oak National Academy
We have been delighted to work with Oak National Academy, an at-arms-length government body, and with our partners the Design and Technology Association, to develop a new curriculum for Cooking and Nutrition. Oak has now published what they believe is the world’s first open-sourced model of an entire national curriculum, fully-resourced down to the lesson level.
The Cooking and Nutrition curriculum, based on the Food – a fact of life education programme, meets the requirements of the current National Curriculum and comprises 108 lessons for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 along with supporting presentations, worksheets, quizzes and recipes.
One teacher responsible for Design and Technology at a large Academy Trust has told us that they:
"LOVE THE OAK RESOURCES - both for our primaries and secondaries - just some of the activities, like the modification of recipes stuff, not just looking at dietary requirements but also budget etc - really good. Love that."
Oak National Academy’s impact on teaching and learning
Through collaboration, Oak’s curriculum and lesson resources are having a hugely positive impact on the lives of teachers and pupils across England:
- improving curriculum expertise in the system – two-thirds of users say that Oak has changed their curriculum, and over 70% have applied ideas and models they’ve learnt from Oak to improve their own teaching.
- reducing teacher workload - almost three-quarters of users say that Oak has had a positive impact on their workload, either reducing their hours or freeing them up to spend more time with pupils. Teachers who use Oak work almost five hours less per week, and the impact grows the more a teacher uses Oak.
- making teachers happier and improving retention – teachers who use Oak have higher wellbeing and are more likely to see themselves staying in teaching.
In addition, there is a bigger impact in schools that serve low-income communities – Oak is used 20% more in areas with schools that serve disadvantaged communities.
Make, munch and more – support for holiday clubs!
In Autumn 2025, we launched a free online training course to help Holiday Activity and Food (HAF), and other holiday club providers, deliver fun, safe and educational food activities for children.
Make, munch and more: Build a brilliant snack offers a quick 45-minute learning experience packed with practical guidance, healthy eating tips, and a simple snack activity that can be easily recreated in any setting. Users receive a downloadable booklet, a personalised certificate on completion, and information to share with parents/carers – including a celebratory certificate for the children.
This is the first in a three-part course series, each designed to inspire confidence, build skills, and support practical food activities in holiday clubs.
This session was incredibly helpful. I feel like I have more confidence and direction on teaching cooking to primary children and how to lay this out, ensure safety, and ensure the children have the best experience.
Teaching Primary Food and Nutrition participant
Support for using the Cooking and Nutrition resources in primary and secondary schools
To support the launch, resources to help teachers engage with the curriculum and lessons, and CPD are being provided. There is a series of webinars for primary and secondary teachers, with recordings available for teachers to watch on catch up. The feedback so far has been very positive and comments from teachers that have attended the webinars have included:
- Very professional, supportive and ambitious CPD, looking forward to the upcoming sessions.
- Thank you to everyone involved in this initiative. You are all so very much appreciated. Thanks for all your time and effort in developing resources that support us in the classroom and ease a heavy workload in terms of planning and preparation.
- Thank you for making this training and the resources to support our curriculum development and CPD planning available to us. It is extremely helpful!
We have also created a range of free interactive resources to support teachers with auditing and updating their food curriculum, and over 3,200 teachers have viewed the Oak – Food curriculum to classroom CPD page on the Food – a fact of life website (December 2025).
Teaching Primary Food and Nutrition
In November 2022, with support from the All Saints Educational Trust, we launched a free two-year training programme – Teaching Primary Food and Nutrition (TPFN). This programme was created for teachers, trainee teachers and teaching assistants in primary settings across the UK.
Championing a whole school approach to food, the training provided the knowledge and practical skills needed in the classroom and included topics from food safety and hygiene to knife skills, healthy eating, and helping children understand the farm to fork journey of their food.
Each TPFN participant received a personal portfolio providing information, advice and ideas as well as tools to audit, evaluate, and reflect upon their teaching and learning.
Essentials CPD Programme
Essentials is a free, flexible online training programme designed to give trainee, early career and non-subject specialist food and nutrition teachers the knowledge, confidence, and tools to succeed in the classroom.
The six module CPD programme comprises self-paced online lessons, recorded video tutorials, live webinars with expert Q&A, and downloadable guides and teaching tips.
Feedback from teachers registered for the Essentials programme includes:
- I have found the CPD programme very useful and have implemented a number of the strategies suggested.
- Thank you for organising this training, it's very informative and helpful.
- Excellent training for an aspiring food teacher.
For more information and to register for exclusive access to the fully-funded CPD programme, go to the Food – a fact of life website.
Overview and rationale
The British Nutrition Foundation has four Education Working Groups around the UK which formally meet on an annual basis. The Groups comprise practising teachers, awarding organisation representatives, initial teacher education personnel/trainers and government officials.
The British Nutrition Foundation Education Working Groups:
- Contribute to the robust independent governance of the Foundation and in particular its education work.
- Provide expertise in food and nutrition teaching and learning.
- Advise on and critically appraise British Nutrition Foundation education plans and activities.
- Provide insight and intelligence on curriculum and qualification change.
- Highlight changes, challenges and opportunities in teaching pedagogy and classroom practice.
- Offer a sounding board to discuss whole school food issues.
- Discuss needs for initial teacher education/training and continuous professional development.
- Provide insight into real life experiences of food and nutrition education in our schools today.
The British Nutrition Foundation is proud to have these expert groups to support our work in food education.
You can find a full list of our Education Working Group members below:
English Education Working Group
Louise Attwood
AQA
Rosalie Forde
Three Ways School
Tracey Goodyere
Birmingham City University
Helen Grundy
Health for Life Programme Manager
Andrew Hartshorn
Finham Park 2
Kevin McGuinness
Mossley Hollins
Ms Susanne Parker-Morris
Worcester University
Elizabeth Tydeman (observer)
DHSC
Dave Parry
D&T Adviser, CLEAPSS
Suzi Lombardelli
Ricards Lodge High School
Sarah Lyles
Surrey Healthy Schools
Cris Cohen
FEASTED
Kate Findlay
Head of Design & Technology (D&T Associate Inspiration Trust)
Northern Ireland Education Working Group
Jan Stewart
Royal School Dungannon
Mairead Davidson
University of Ulster
Shirley Davidson
Omagh Academy
Glynis Henderson
Education Consultant
Jayne Lloyd
Methodist College
Jemma Theobald
Education Authority
Amanda McGarry
North Coast Integrated School Coleraine
Laura McGreevy
St Columbanus’ College
Joanne O’Neill
Magherafelt High School
Ryan Richie
Lagan College
Hannah Somerville
McKinney Primary School
Lois Trimble
McKinney Primary School
Dorothee Wagner
CCEA
Liz Simpson
CAFRE
Cathy Hopkins
FSA Northern Ireland
Scottish Education Working Group
Louise Wright
Education Scotland
Claire Eddie
Education Scotland
Carla Bell
Alloa Academy
Emma Creechan
Carluke High School
Graeme Findlay
Scottish Qualification Authority
Ann Floyd
HM Inspector of Education
Elaine Gardiner
University of Strathclyde
Lara Henderson
St Timothy’s Primary School
Megan Johnston
Alexandra Parade Primary
Emma Juskowiak
Calderside Academy
Isla Porteous
St Joseph’s College
Laura Wilson
Food Standards Scotland
Welsh Education Working Group
Amy Bergiers
Nantgaredig Primary School
Aranwen Morgans-Thomas
Estyn
Lisa Lewis
Cardiff Health Promoting Schools Team
Lloyd Henry
Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr
Mike Lewis
Welsh Joint Education Committee
Kathryn Mallows
Cowbridge Comprehensive School
Jo Nicholls
Aberdare Community School
Meg Taylor
Ysgol Calon Cymru
Sarah Smith
Whitchurch High School
Contact us:
To learn more, please contact the Education team at education@nutrition.org.uk