Food & Nutrition

Course summary

WJEC GCSE Food and Nutrition enables learners to have the knowledge, understanding and skills required to plan and create healthy balanced meals. Learners will need to apply the principles of food science when deciding upon their food choices. Knowledge will be acquired on how to feed different groups of society nutritionally balanced meals throughout life that highlight practical skills learnt. The course is split into two parts, unit one and unit two. Unit one - Principles of Food and Nutrition and is worth 40% of the qualification. Assessed through a 90 minute written examination at the end of Year 11. Unit two - Food and Nutrition in Action and is worth 60% of the qualification. Unit one, Principles of Food and Nutrition requires learners to complete six core areas, these core areas are: Food Commodities Principles of nutrition. Diet and good health. The science of food. Where food comes from. Cooking and food preparation. Practical skills and experimental work will form the backbone of unit one enabling learners to develop their technical skills as well as overall knowledge of food. Unit two, Food and Nutrition in Action, this unit is internally assessed and is a non-examination based assessment. This unit is broken down into two assessments, assessment one is worth 20% of the qualification assessment two 40%. For assessment one learners will be given a food investigation assessment set by WJEC. This is a timed task of 10 assessment hours, the supporting evidence should be no longer than 2,500 words. An example task could be “The success of a creamed sponge mixture relies on suitable raising agent”. Investigate the success of different raising agents when making a creamed sponge. Assessment two is worth 40% of the qualification, learners will be given a task set by WJEC. They have to research, plan, prepare, cook and evaluate within 15 assessment hours. The supporting evidence will be no longer than 15 pages. An example task could be “A local restaurant in your area is holding international week. Research, prepare and cook three dishes with accompaniments that could be served on a themed menu to promote the cuisine of a specific country or religion”. You will need to bring ingredients and learning materials when directed and will have the opportunity to cater for events within the school as well as enter catering competitions.