FAQ

What is the definition of a cooking club?

All schools are asked, “Do you have an extra-curricular school-based group, which:

• has met at least six times during the last 12 months to prepare and cook food

• has an adult available to lead the club and is competent to teach club members to prepare and cook food?”

Schools need to make a judgement and decide if they meet these criteria. We have tried to make the definition clear yet flexible. Providing lots of strict criteria and different scenarios could become very complicated as schools run clubs in lots of different ways, and stricter guidelines could exclude some schools from applying.

Ultimately the school should know if their existing club is run by a competent adult and it is unlikely that a headteacher would allow a cooking club to be run by someone who does not have sufficient skills. An adult who is perfectly competent in one situation may not be sufficiently skilled or experienced to run a club in a different setting. If schools answer ‘no’ to the above question, then they would be eligible to join as a new club. If we have already recruited new clubs in their region, the only option is to set up a cooking club and apply again when they feel they meet the associate club criteria. Please note: schools providing false information could be asked to return any funding at a later date.

Why does my club have to have met at least six times in the last 12 months?

We specify that an associate club must have met at least six times in the last 12 months as this helps us to ensure that Let's Get Cooking associate clubs are established clubs with experience of running cooking sessions. We ask that clubs have met within the last 12 months to ensure that they are either currently active or have been active recently.

Our school has been running cooking activities for a long time but I am not sure if we are doing it correctly. What do you mean by a competent adult?

Ultimately the school should know if their existing club is run by a competent adult. As the headteacher at each school is responsible for health and safety and insurance it is unlikely that they would allow an insufficiently experienced person to run a cooking club. Speak to your headteacher to discuss issues such as health and safety, risk assessments, insurance, behaviour and food safety before applying to become a Let's Get Cooking associate club.

How will I know if I qualify as a new or associate club?

When you access our website to apply to join Let's Get Cooking, you will be asked if your school has an existing cooking club:

Do you have an extra-curricular school based group, which:

• has met at least six times during the last 12 months to prepare and cook food

• has an adult available to lead the club who is competent to teach club members to prepare and cook food?

If you don't have a cooking club, you may be eligible to apply as a new club and you will be asked to input your invitation code (provided on the invitation letter). For details on when you will receive an invitation letter please click here.

If you do have a cooking club, then we will ask a few more questions and let you know whether your application is successful. Please note: if you provide false information you could be asked to return any funding at a later date.

If our school ran a one-off cooking event, run by an external organisation (for example a four-week cooking course for children), does that count as an extra-curricular cooking club?

If this cooking activity was just a one-off and was run by someone outside of the school, then we don’t consider your school to have a cooking club. You must have a competent adult who is available to run your club on a regular basis.

We had a cooking club but we haven’t run it for over a year. Are we eligible to apply as an associate club?

Only schools that currently have a cooking club can join Let's Get Cooking as associate clubs. That’s why we ask whether your club has met at least six times within the last 12 months. If you had a cooking club but haven’t run any sessions in the last year, you will not be eligible to apply for an associate club place. You can either apply for a new club place (click here to see when we will be setting up clubs in your local authority), or start up your cooking club again and apply later for an associate club place when you meet our criteria.

Our school has signed up to another cooking scheme and has received funding from another organisation. Are we still eligible to apply as an associate club?

Yes, you can still apply to become an associate club even if you have received money from elsewhere. When you apply you will be asked to provide some information about the funding (such as when you received it, the amount you received, and who from).

As Let's Get Cooking is funded by the Big Lottery Fund, if you have already received funding from the Big Lottery Fund for cooking activities, then you won’t be able to receive any money from Let's Get Cooking. You can still join as a non-funded associate club and receive all our resources.

I don’t have a cooking club at the moment. Should I start a cooking club now and apply to become an associate club or wait until Let's Get Cooking comes to my area and apply to become a new club?

You will need to decide the best course of action for your school. We recruit new clubs in local clusters by writing all schools in each local authority in cycles every six months. Visit www.letsgetcooking.org.uk to see when we are writing to schools in your local authority.

If you wait to apply to become a new club, there is no guarantee that your application will be successful. The advantage of setting up your own club and applying as an associate member is that you can apply as soon as your club meets our criteria. Your club can start cooking straight away and won’t have to wait. However, new clubs receive training and a bit more funding.

How long do we have to keep the club running for?

The aim is that Let’s Get Cooking clubs will be sustainable and that they continue to run after funding has ended. In order to continue to receive the range of support and resources (including access to discounted equipment, activity and recipe packs and national competitions and events) associate clubs will need to submit 12 activity reports and three community event reports via the Club Zone of the Let's Get Cooking website each year. A range of resources will be developed to help associate clubs obtain support from businesses within their community.

We don’t have an existing cooking club but all the new club places are full in my area. What options are available to me?

You could set up a cooking club and when you feel you meet the Let's Get Cooking associate club criteria, you can apply to become an associate club. See ‘What is the definition of a cooking club?’