The place of practical cookery within school subjects in England has, in recent years, been debated as part of concerns about the nation's health and obesity. Cookery has been a school subject for over a century, but has only ever held a minority place in the curriculum. In 2017 we surveyed teachers of practical cookery in schools, in a repeat of…

There has been a recent surge of interest in cooking skills in a diverse range of fields, such as health, education and public policy. There appears to be an assumption that cooking skills are in decline and that this is having an adverse impact on individual health and well-being, and family wholesomeness. The problematisation of cooking skills…

This article explores two case studies of the literacy practices of assessment in the vocational curriculum. Previous studies have identified learning in the vocational curriculum as being assessment-driven and that subjects often associated with limited levels of literacy actually require multiple literacy practices from students. Drawing upon…