Aurora Hanley School shares ingredients of award-winning food project

Aurora Hanley School Head Teacher Julie Martin joined Tracy Whitehurst, Principal of Aurora Hanley School and Aurora Summerfields School to record a special SENDcast podcast in which they discuss how the ‘Children’s Community Cooking Project’ came about.

The project, which aimed to help tackle food waste and food poverty, was set up by food technology teacher Tina Amison. It involved collecting waste food from local shops and supermarkets and re-using it to make nutritious meals which were distributed via a local church to people in the local community living in food poverty.

Not only did pupils help prepare the food ready for distribution but they also learned more about sustainability and their local community. Indeed, so successful was the project that it scooped the National Association of Special Schools (NASS) innovation award last year.

Julie said: “Recording a podcast was definitely a new experience for Tracy and I but it seemed to go well. Tracy spoke about how the project was set up last year and I spoke about how it fitted into the wider curriculum. The project was a great way to help build pupils’ confidence in, what was for them, a different community setting.

“The project has served up more than 290 meals so far and it’s still continuing and the pupils have received super feedback from those who have enjoyed the meals.”

To listen for free to the Hanley School podcast on SENDcast, click here and follow the instructions.

Rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, Aurora Hanley School offers an independent specialist education for young people aged 6 to 19 who have complex communication and social needs typically associated with Autism spectrum conditions.