19 out of 20 year 5 and 6 pupils had no knowledge of the health risks associated with eating a diet high in fast food and ultra-processed foods

As part of healthy eating week 2024 Felicitous Foodology funded 20 families in Essex who home school their year 5 and 6 aged children, with our 11-week nutritional course.

We have some fabulous feedback from all the pupils and their parent tutors and we thank you all for taking part and proving just how important nutrition is in everyday learning and everyday life.

We collated some concerning data pre course and some encouraging post course data. Showing that nutrition really has a place in our primary school aged children. Primary schools are a natural setting for the delivery of nutrition to be a positive, prioritised part of our society.

A survey conducted by the British Nutrition Foundation in 2017 revealed that 13% of 8–11-year-olds think pasta came from an animal, whilst 23% of pupils aged 5–7 indicated that bananas, roast chicken, broccoli and whole-grain bread were in the dairy and alternatives food group (Ballam, 2017).  Surveys such as this one reveal that a deficit in the basic understanding of food and nutrition in young people still exists. Our collective data shows there is still a huge deficit in the basic understanding of food and nutrition 7 years on from The British Nutrition Foundation survey 2017.

Nutrition education represents a key step in improving the diets and health of primary school pupils.