TastEd Blog

How Ambler Primary School and Children’s Centre is embedding TastEd from Early Years to the end of Primary School

Helena Buckley2026-09-07T10:45:41+01:00 At Ambler Primary School and Children’s Centre in Islington, food education starts early. From babies in the children’s centre through to pupils in Year 6, children across the setting have regular opportunities to explore food with all their senses. What began with one teacher and a single Year 3 class...

Supporting schools through the end of the Primary PE & Sport Premium

Helena Buckley2026-07-13T14:54:14+01:00 With the school year coming to an end, primary school leaders around the UK have something extra to worry about: the end of a significant piece of funding. The Primary PE and Sport Premium was a source of ring-fenced funding designed to be used not just on sports in schools...

How Can We Learn (or Relearn) a Love of Beans and Peas?

Helena Buckley2026-06-29T18:20:32+01:00 Why bother with beans? There are so many reasons to eat more beans, peas and pulses. As nitrogen-fixing plants, legumes naturally improve soil fertility when used in crop rotations (reducing the need for polluting fossil fuel fertilisers). Meanwhile, beans provide a cheap alternative protein source to meat and are packed with...

Rethinking breakfast

Helena Buckley2026-04-14T09:29:50+01:00 It’s time to broaden our concept of what we eat in the morning, writes Anna Shepard Picture your typical breakfast. A bowl of cornflakes, a glass of juice, maybe some toast and jam? This is what many of us have learnt breakfast looks like – light, sweet and often cereal-based. If...

An Interview with TastEd Artist Annabel Lee by Bee Wilson

Helena Buckley2026-02-23T16:06:10+00:00 By TastEd founder, Bee Wilson Many children have a feeling that vegetables and fruits are something alien and not for them. They have been told many times that these foods are healthy. But knowing that something is healthy and wanting to eat it are two very different things. The heart of TastEd...

How History Shaped Children’s Food

Fran2026-02-10T11:43:25+00:00 Across the world, there is huge variation in what children eat. In many cultures, there is little or no distinction between children’s food and adults’ food. Children eat what everyone else eats, learning tastes, textures, and food habits simply by being part of shared meals. So where did the idea...

Prendergast Primary School TastEd Journey

Helena Buckley2025-02-11T11:04:08+00:00To mark our 5th anniversary, we’re celebrating the schools and nurseries delivering food education to their pupils! Prendergast Primary in Lewisham, South London is a state primary school. The school has incorporated TastEd into their curriculum, with the students now participating in food education lessons every two weeks. During these lessons,...

TastEd’s Vision for Food Education: A Response to the UK’s Curriculum Review Call for Evidence

Fran2024-12-03T17:09:01+00:00As the UK Government undertakes a curriculum and assessment framework review, TastEd has submitted recommendations emphasising sensory food education’s critical role in shaping children’s health, wellbeing, and learning outcomes. The Need for Improved Food Education Food education is vital for fostering a positive relationship with healthy eating. The curriculum currently offers limited...

We need your help!

Helena Buckley2024-07-25T09:57:40+01:00 Looking for supporters to help TastEd in our next five years. As we’re celebrating 5 years of TastEd, we’re looking forward and thinking about our future as a charity. We’re so proud to have 1,250 primary schools and nurseries signed up to access our free sensory food education resources. But with...

TastEd at the Department for Education Early Years Foundation Stage Event

Fran2023-07-04T08:25:19+01:00 Engaging the Senses With Practitioners. When the National Food Strategy was published we were delighted to see Henry Dimblely and his team recommend that sensory food education should be added to the Early Years curriculum. Since then we have been working with the Department for Education (DfE) Early Years...

GUEST BLOG: TastEd Comes to Sheffield!

Fran2023-05-05T16:58:43+01:00 Eat Smart Sheffield is a Whole School & Settings Approach to Food and Nutrition programme commissioned by Sheffield City Council and developed and delivered by Learn Sheffield. Focused on encouraging and supporting pupils, families and the community to adopt healthier eating behaviours, it has two main aims: To give schools the...

TastEd wins prestigious BBC Food and Farming Award

Fran2023-02-03T11:55:30+00:00 Back in the middle of 2022, TastEd was shortlisted as a finalist for the BBC Food and Farming Awards under the Innovation category. These awards, running for over 20 years, each year celebrate the incredible work to promote good food across the UK food system, so to be shortlisted in...

How can you teach the Great Fire of London through Food Education?

Fran2022-08-08T14:42:17+01:00 The idea that food education is important and that it should be about exploration and finding joy in healthy food is not a controversial one. However, there’s one big barrier that comes up over and over again when we speak to teachers, and that’s time! Teachers tell us it’s hard...

In Memory of Lesley Mackley

Fran2022-04-22T15:20:14+01:00 Lesley Mackley was one of the quiet heroes of both food education and food writing in the U.K. We were so sad to hear of her death in March this year and were extremely moved and grateful when Lesley’s family (Tilly, Mark and Henry) contacted us to say that instead...

TastEd comes to Islington

Fran2022-03-02T09:55:44+00:00 Our year at TastEd got off to a great start. Ever since we formed as an organisation at the start of 2019, our dream has been to help as many children as possible in the U.K. benefit from sensory food education. We believe that taste education should be a universal...

Sharing TastEd with School Families and Communities

Fran2021-12-17T16:49:41+00:00 As part of Prendergast Primary’s Food Week, each class from Reception to Year 6 experienced a different TastEd lesson every day. But, lessons weren’t exclusively for children. Parents and carers in years 3-6 were invited to a Food Week Assembly as part of the Harvest celebration for a taste of...

TastEd and The University of Cambridge Primary School

Fran2021-11-11T12:56:55+00:00 One of the projects that we’ve been most excited about over the past few months has been a collaboration with the University of Cambridge Primary School. The school is one of the first (along with Washingborough Academy in Lincolnshire) to adopt TastEd in every year group and the feedback from...