Budding cooks from Morda CE Primary School, near Oswestry, enjoyed a live television cookery class direct from Hospitality & Food students at Derwen College.

Derwen College students Josh Pickett and Aaliyah James delivered an on-screen cooking demonstration to pupils on how to make healthy Banana & Blueberry Muffins.

The on-screen lesson to the school’s Shamrocks class was part of Morda Primary’s Eat Well Week, which took place between 18 and 22 October. Pupils enjoyed following students Josh and Aaliyah as they measured, mixed and baked a dozen delicious muffins. Morda pupil baked 120 muffins in total.

Derwen students then quizzed the pupils about the recipe and asked them questions about healthy eating.

This was returned with queries from pupils about Derwen students’ favourite healthy eating recipes.

Hospitality & Food lead Alison Adams, said: “Thank you to Morda CE Primary School for making Derwen College part of their Eat Well Week. It was a pleasure to work to be able to interact with them over video.

Students Josh and Aaliyah James enjoyed the experience which allowed them to showcase their hospitality skills.

Aaliyah said: “I really enjoyed showing the pupils how we make healthy muffins. I’d really like to do that again.”

Hospitality and Food is one of the core vocational areas at Derwen College, in Gobowen. The College is a specialist college for young adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) which offers students the opportunity to learn new skills in real work environments, and to learn life skills which will enable them to live as independently as possible.

Teacher Mr Josh Sibley said: “It was definitely a great experience for the children. This morning we had a lesson about the importance of eating healthy and having a balanced diet.

“The baking gave them the chance to learn how to follow a recipe and see that they can make healthy snacks for themselves. The students from Derwen were great at talking the children through the process step by step, at our pace! They also answered all of the children’s questions well at the end. Most importantly, the children all enjoyed themselves and left the classroom with smiles on their faces!”

Morda Primary School pupils and staff enjoyed the day.

Some of their quotes were:

‘I enjoyed being taught how to make blueberry and banana muffins by the lovely students.

The muffins tasted good’

‘I enjoyed getting very messy – It was fun. I really liked the banana, I’m not too keen on blueberries though’

‘We would like to cook with the Derwen students again’

‘I enjoyed mixing the ingredients. It was fun. I liked the sweet blueberries. Thank you for helping us’

‘The best thing about Eat Well Week was cooking the blueberry and banana muffins with the Derwen students’

‘The students gave us lots of baking tips. I liked how it was very organised. The students explained what to do very well so we could follow what to do. It was fun to cook together on Teams’

‘I liked the Q&A session at the end – there were lots of good questions and we answered most of them’

‘Thank you Aaliyah and Josh’

The college has received three consecutive ‘outstanding’ Ofsted gradings. For 2021, The College has been named TES FE Awards Specialist Provider of the Year and won the NASEN (National Association of Special Educational Needs) award for ’16-25 year olds Provision.’

For more information on learning at Derwen College, or to find out more about visiting the commercial areas (which include a garden Centre and shop, café, and training hotel) visit www.derwen.ac.uk.