Meet our Year 3 Happy Healthy Heroes

Flour, pork, shallots, and some seasoning and magic is born in our Food Lab.

This week, as part of the Healthy Happy Heroes curriculum, our Year 3 students  experienced making dumplings and got an experiential lesson in how  different ways of cooking food impact healthy diets.

During the class, Chef Ken from our Aden catering team showed the students how to make the dumpling filling by adding cabbage, egg, ginger water, spring onion and seasoning to the prepared meat mixture and then stirring it thoroughly.

Each group of students was then given a small bowl of pre-made dumpling filling and some dumpling wrappers, and then set to the challenge: wrap the dumplings! The first step was to choose the right amount of dumpling filling, place it neatly in the centre of the dumpling wrapper, dip the skin in water to make it sticky, fold the skin in half and a dumpling was born!

In no time at all there were many different shapes of dumplings on the plates, and with the help of Chef Ken the students' dumplings were soon floating in the water. The classroom was filled with "yummy~" compliments.

The Healthy Happy Heroes curriculum is closely linked to the wellbeing philosophy of our holistic education.

Our Year 3 students have been learning about what makes a balanced diet by exploring local foods and the different types of food that make up a balanced meal. Through this exercise children will:

• know different food groups and be able to group foods into broad categories as well as be able to identify what teeth are needed to consume these different foods.
•  know that an adequate and varied diet is needed to keep healthy.
•  understand the variety of different types of food will help them to stay healthy, strong and happy.

In addition, children will practice the following skills:

• make predictions about the outcome of an investigation.
• sort foods by comparing their similarities and differences.

Starting with a framework for self-care in Early Years, wellbeing education at DCSPD continues through Junior School and Senior School diving into age-appropriate health topics.

By using a concrete task such as dumpling making, students learn how wellbeing is an impactful part of their daily lives. Students gradually acquire terminology and tools, become more self-aware and are better able to care for their own and others' physical and mental health.