A good news story highlighting the opportunity for students of The Kings School Ottery St Mary Devon to be the apprentices of the future "Dine like Kings"
26 x 15 year old students from the school under the watchful eye of their teacher Mrs Debora Capon will be preparing cooking and serving a 4 course dinner for 60 paying guests at The Salty Monk an award winning Restaurant just outside Sidmouth.
The Schools cookery programme supports teaching a truly inspirational course, where students run restaurant evenings in their own time. After attending the dinner and teaching at the school we decided to donate our property to the school for 1 day so that they could work from a professional kitchen and restaurant.
The aim of the evening is to enable students to experience the real world of Catering and hospitality. The students will be making all of the food from scratch, setting the tables and carrying out all the front of house responsibilities. Each year the students will be raising money for local charities and the Catering Department at school. Over the past three years the event has raised a total of £10,000 which has been distributed between the charities and helping the School catering department, with 2 cookers, small equipment, bake ware and service China purchased.
The experience is so powerful that it has reaffirmed for some of the youngsters that this is the industry for them. Out of seventeen students last year we had two who went on to start apprenticeships at GidleighPark Hotel, and one at The Jack in the Green. The King’s School is very proud of its catering team and students regularly enter national and regional competitions.
We are very grateful to all of our sponsors without whom this event would be impossible. It is a remarkably challenging yet rewarding event which embodies everything education should. It brings local business and education together in an event which enables students to gain a real life experience of the industry. For some this will be the defining point – yes or no. Either way it will have taught so much about themselves, their peers and the way of the world that no one could deny its value.
