A popular area for Endeavour projects has been cooking. We are very lucky at Port Ellen to have our own teaching kitchen area and take advantage of it for children wishing to cook or bake for their Endeavour.
Maisie used the kitchen extensively to create beauty products like smoothies and face masks for her 2014 Endeavour, and even persuaded some of the boys to try it! She also researched the impact of the beauty industry on the environment and animal welfare, and enjoyed creating her own eco-friendly beauty products.
Abbie was a joint winner of the first Endeavour award for her cookery book on international cooking. She would bring in ingredients every week for recipes around the world and would then feed the class, who would give her feedback on the project. I really enjoyed her Indian onion chutney.
We have had two trainee bakers, Annie and Natalie. Both baked the guess the weight of the Christmas cake for the school fair and sold their cakes as businesses, developing skills for the world of work at the same time. Both made birthday and Christmas cakes, and their baking was amazing as you can see from the photo. You can read Natalie’s cake blog in the link on the right.
Emma also enjoyed developing her skills in the kitchen. She was learning to cook and develop independence in the kitchen, shopping for food, finding all the equipment, following a recipe and cleaning up afterwards. Despite her communication difficulties she enjoyed working with other children and learned skills for life.