November 21, 2022 09:33pm
With the Royal Navy being based in Portsmouth, many of our students are curious about a career in the navy. Royal Navy chefs Jason and Harry visited TPA last week to give our Year 11 Food and Nutrition students a taste of life in the navy and to do some cooking together.
In the first half of the workshop, students listened to a presentation and learned about the training programs which applicants to the Royal Navy are required to complete. In addition to paid training, there are many other benefits of joining the navy such as forming lifelong friendships, travelling the world and sporting opportunities. Students also watched a video hearing from serving men and women about their experience of being in the navy. They were given information about how to register their interest in the navy and details about the application process which includes interviews, eye and medical tests, and a fitness and swimming test.
The second half of the workshop involved a Ready, Steady, Cook style challenge. Students were given a box with the ingredients for a chicken and mushroom pie with a short crust pastry and a sticky toffee pudding. They were assigned to one of 4 teams and team members were asked to work on either the main or the pudding. Following the instructions provided, the students had to work together to prepare and plate the dishes for judging in the allotted 1 hour and 10 minutes. In addition to their cooking skills, all the students had to use their communication, organisation and time management skills to successfully complete the challenge in their teams and present a finished main and pudding for judging.
Sally said:
The Royal Navy visit was really good, I enjoyed opening the box and seeing the recipes for the first time and we had to work with other people than we usually would under time pressure which was quite stressful but fun too. I didn’t know you could have so many job opportunities in the navy.
Mrs Fletcher, Curriculum Lead for Food and Nutrition said:
We were delighted to welcome Jason and Harry from the Royal Navy into the school last Monday, Year 11s were an absolute credit to the academy and enjoyed making a chicken and mushroom pie and a sticky toffee pudding which demonstrated lots of high level skills. The students had a great careers talk hearing the benefits of joining the navy, the perks, opportunity to travel and were really inquisitive asking questions that linked to not only their Hospitality and Catering course but also careers and post 16 courses in general.
This was a brilliant opportunity for our Year 11 students to consider a career with the Royal Navy and to interact with chefs working in the industry and we'd like to thank Jason and Harry for coming to visit us!
