We always love getting feedback from our Creative Food Workshops, so we thought we’d share it with you…
Key Stage One workshop
We had a Funky Lunch Workshop led by Mark with our Key Stage One pupils. We told him what we wanted and he planned, organised, prepped and delivered a fantastic, fun and engaging day with our pupils. It fitted in really well with our Fun with Food theme and touched on so many different areas of the Curriculum.
The children thoroughly enjoyed the day and are proud still now after the event when they look at the photos of the food art they created. We are still hearing about rocket sandwiches etc that they are eating at home. Thank you to Mark for a productive, effective and thoroughly enjoyable day which was had by all.
I must also comment that his delivery to the children was extremely good, he engaged them, was clear in his instructions to them and set the expectations for behaviour and safety (use of tools) very well and as a result we were able to enjoy the days activities with the children too.
Thank you again.
Dominique Low
Key Stage 1 Teacher, Blakedown CE Primary School, Kidderminster
Although our workshops are focused on healthy eating, they can be used in different ways, as the following case shows. The structure of the day changed right at the last minute, but never one to turn down a challenge, we stepped up to the plate (literally), and as you can read… it went like a dream!
‘Funky Lunch Week’
Year 5/6 workshops
I invited Mark into our school to join in with our annual Book Week. This year, we decided to focus on non-fiction writing (instead of the usual stories) and specifically on writing instructional texts (recipes). This was to fit with our School Development Plan, where engaging boys in writing is a focus.
Mark came into school on the Monday to deliver a whole-school assembly to 280 children with me to launch ‘Funky Lunch Week.’ In the 30 minute assembly he talked about how he started his brand, how he came to write his book almost accidentally, and how his brand has now developed nationally and internationally. This was really important for our boy writers to hear, and Mark’s fantastic website – resplendent with its gallery and blogs – was very engaging for all watching and listening.
Mark spoke to the children very well and the pitch of the assembly was perfect. He told the story of the creation of the brand as it happened – through his interactions with his family, and this immediately had the children’s attention.
For the rest of the day, Mark did three workshops with each of our Year 5/6 classes, where he passed on his expertise to children aged 9-11. Each class had just under 30 children, so he worked with 80 children throughout the day. Mark was very flexible in terms of the content of the workshops. He initially was planning an ‘Apprentice’ style workshop, where the children created a new product and a brand of their own in one day. This sounded fabulous when we started talking about the week earlier in the year. However, because each teacher had planned to do this across the week with their class, Mark (in discussion with myself via email and phone) changed his workshop to fit in with our plans. We were extremely grateful for this and it had a huge impact as a result.
The day worked brilliantly and Mark left the children very enthused and ‘buzzing’ about creating their own Funky Lunches. The children then embarked on a week’s cross-curricular learning, using skills in Literacy, Numeracy, DT and Art to create recipes and make their new sandwiches. We are using Mark’s input and the week’s work to encourage the children to produce a school ‘Funky Lunch’ recipe book, which will be on sale to parents. This also covers PSHE skills in enterprise and financial capability.
Overall, I was very impressed with Mark’s preparation and delivery. He has offered to come back to school again and do workshops with the younger children, which I’m sure will happen very soon!
David Rich
Literacy leader, Walwayne Court School, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
So if you are looking for a unique educational activity workshop for your students for the new school year, give us a call on 01903 719269 for a quote. You can also find out more information at www.funkylunch.com/schools