SPOTLIGHT ON: Our Food Positive Healthy Eating Scheme of Work for Key Stage 1 and 2
By nutritionist Jennifer Nash
Much ‘healthy eating’ messaging and teaching can actually be damaging to children’s understanding of food, health and their bodies. Written and reviewed by our team of multi-disciplinary experts in the field of body image, body-affirming nutrition and eating disorder prevention, this scheme of work takes a food-positive approach to healthy eating that both nurtures children’s body esteem and supports them to have a healthy relationship with food. Click here to read our blog post explaining the rationale behind this approach to food education.
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto: https://www.pexels.com/photo/father-teaching-daughter-baking-4815346/
If you’re passionate about helping the children in your care develop a positive relationship with food and their bodies, we need your help to shout about our brand-new scheme of work! Letting your school know about this resource is a great act of body image advocacy.
The resource consists of a five-lesson scheme of work (plus an additional lesson for years 5 and 6), with 30-60 minutes lessons that can be adapted into the school timetable.
Each scheme of work contains:
💡 Overview – detailed teaching notes and rationale mapped to national curriculum and Ofsted requirements
💡 Lesson slides – multi-dimensional PowerPoint slides for ease of delivery, consisting of videos, quizzes and class discussion prompts
💡 Activity sheets – fun and engaging worksheets for a range of different types of self-assessment and guided breakout learning
💡 Impact reporting – record the impact the resource has on your students with a short post-lesson survey
💡 Signposting to further resources – including aftercare guidance for schools and families
This resource will help schools to:
🎓 Surpass Ofsted requirements and evidence your commitment to child wellbeing, safeguarding and inclusion
🎓 Meet national curriculum requirements with ease – no time-consuming planning or expert experience required to deliver these sessions
🎓 Adapt to any curriculum and compliment your wider school approach to health and wellbeing, inclusion and anti-bullying
🎓 Accessible for all budgets and supports the social economy – your download helps to fund other projects and initiatives that support student body esteem and wellbeing
Check out the lessons:
Click here to view a sample of the lessons and resources for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
Lesson 1: Why do we need food and what does it do?
Understand the multiple roles food plays in our lives (food is more than just fuel!) and begin to appreciate that we all have different preferences when it comes to food, particularly in different cultures. Use new sensory vocabulary to describe the foods we like or don’t like and undertake a mealtime activity worksheet (KS1) or meals around the world activity (KS2).
Key words: energy, grow, process (KS2 includes nutrients, digestion, diet)
Lesson 2: Food groups/nutrients and variety
Introduce basic terminology for food groups and undertake an activity deciding which foods fall into which category. Discuss how we can look after our bodies by eating a variety of foods – and that none of these foods are ‘good’ or ‘bad’!
Key words: food group, carbohydrate, protein, fat (KS2 includes nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fibre)
Lesson 3: Ingredients and building a meal
Here we start to think beyond nutrition and ‘build a meal’ by selecting ingredients for a recipe we’ve chosen. We discuss the wide range of factors involved in food and drink choice, from preference, culture and religion to health reasons and cost. We introduce concepts such as food privilege, food insecurity and food waste.
Key words: ingredients, recipe, food insecurity
Lesson 4: Healthy eating is having a healthy relationship with food (part one)
Introduce concepts of mindful eating and positive body image through a ‘hungry body’ activity, as we build a healthy relationship with food and our bodies.
Key words: relationship, body image, special occasion
Lesson 5: Healthy eating is having a healthy relationship with food (part two)
Discuss healthy behaviours to look after our bodies and minds and how to implement them. Introduce the concept of intuitive movement and build upon positive body image and a healthy relationship with food.
Key words: healthy behaviours, body image, movement
Additional lesson for years 5 and 6: Influencing the food and drink we consume
Introduce media literacy and develop skills through the ‘media detectives’ activity to help students think critically about the messages they receive around food, health and their bodies, in order to build positive body image and a healthy relationship with food.
Key words: media, messages, persuasion
A note on neurodivergent-affirming food education
We are careful not to use the term "fussy eating" as this can stigmatise children who have particular preferences, which can exist for all sorts of reasons. One of these reasons can be neurodivergence. For example, evidence shows that children who are autistic are more likely to have a restricted diet, more limited food repertoire and greater food refusal than their peers, due to factors such as higher levels of sensory sensitivity, preference for routine, behavioural inflexibility, motor problems or gastrointestinal symptoms.
This scheme of work emphasises that we can look after our bodies by eating a variety of different foods. It is important to understand that for some children this may be a particularly challenging concept and one which feels unsafe to them. Therefore, we advise addressing this topic sensitively and in an affirming manner. There is focus elsewhere in the scheme of work on appreciating and accepting that we all eat in different ways and have different preferences. Aftercare Guidance is included in this scheme to assist teachers with identifying potential safeguarding issues around food, disordered eating behaviour and eating disorders, along with signposting to further sources of support.
What makes our teaching resources so special?
We are the only body image organisation of our kind, with a multi-disciplinary team. Our resources are made and reviewed by a team of specialist teachers, GPs, nutritionists, mental health support workers, a children’s eating disorders dietician and weight-inclusive fitness trainers.
Our executive director and founder, Molly Forbes, is a journalist with over 15 years experience working in media, training and media literacy education, and the author of two books, Body Happy Kids and Every Body, published by Penguin Random House.
We have a robust internal impact measurement framework and, what’s more, this year we’re working with researchers at The University of Lincoln on a formal study to assess part of our whole-school approach.
All this experience, expertise and prioritisation of impact monitoring means that when we say our resources are evidence-based and expert-led, we can say it with confidence.
Want this in your school? Forward them this link or download the overview below to share with them.