Leiths Education free Primary cookery programme
Published 19th March 2026
A new nationwide initiative from Leiths Education is giving teachers the tools to bring high-quality cookery lessons into every primary classroom, with the goal of ensuring every child can cook nutritious meals from scratch by the end of KS2.
Launched by Prue Leith alongside Joe Powell, the programme addresses a clear gap in food education. Research from a year-long pilot found that more than 75% of pupils had not received regular cookery lessons, despite the proven link between cooking from scratch and healthier lifelong habits.
Ready-to-use resources for every teacher
Leiths Education has created a free video cookery curriculum that any primary school teacher can deliver, no prior cookery experience is needed, just simple equipment and affordable ingredients. Covering KS1 and KS2, the programme equips pupils with the skills and confidence to cook real food from scratch.
Everything is included: step-by-step videos led by a Leiths chef teacher, schemes of work, teaching and learning notes, cross-curricular links, PowerPoints, recipe sheets, and scalable shopping lists. Six introductory videos are free to access now, with the full curriculum available at no cost to UK state primary schools, offering teachers a structured, engaging way to embed practical cookery into the timetable.
Building skills for life
Evidence from the pilot highlights real impact. Teachers reported improvements in pupils’ confidence, teamwork, and ability to follow instructions, alongside stronger engagement across the wider curriculum, including maths, science, PSHE, and design and technology. Pupils were also inspired to try new ingredients at home, sharing recipes and developing healthier habits.
Dame Prue Leith said: “I would encourage all primary schools to make use of this new free programme, to ensure every child learns about food, nutrition and cooking from their very first years in education. I am passionate about our duty to teach young people to eat well, to understand where ingredients come from, how to prepare them, and to learn to cook a wide range of healthy and nutritious food. If we can also give them some really basic practical cooking skills to enable them to cook for themselves, we set them up for life.”
This programme gives teachers an accessible, low-cost way to deliver practical, hands-on learning while helping pupils gain essential life skills.
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