Ready, steady, cook at Phoenix School

10.31.53pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 30th Apr 2007

Cllr Stephanie Eaton cuts the ribbon to open the Food Technology Centre at Phoenix School

A new food technology centre was opened today at Phoenix School by Liberal Democrat Leader (and very bad cook), Cllr Stephanie Eaton.

Phoenix is a school for pupils with a wide range of special educational needs, aged between 2 - 16 years. In September 2001 the designation of the school was changed to admit pupils with language and communication difficulties and severe learning difficulties, including those on the autistic spectrum. In September this year Phoenix School gains specialist status which will enable it to share knowledge and experience by building networks and sharing practice with other specialist schools.

The dishes in the "Ready, Steady, Cook" contest are shown to the judges

To celebrate the opening of the food technology centre, students were placed into two teams for a cook-off in the style of the TV show "Ready, Steady, Cook". Given an unseen bag of ingredients, the green pepper team made a delicious fruit salad, and the tomato team made a cheese omelette. The audience of teachers, parents, governors and other visitors voted, and the result (perhaps not surprisingly) was a draw. All agreed the fruit salad and omelette looked delicious.

Cllr Stephanie Eaton cut the ribbon to officially open the food tech centre. She thanked the Head teacher, Stuart Harris, and all those who had worked so hard to bring about the new centre, and spoke of the fantastic school environment and the commitment of parents and staff in providing an excellent education for children with learning difficulties and autism spectrum disorder. She also mentioned the continuing campaign to ensure that the Council does not remove respite care from parents, and promised to continue to fight to ensure that the families of disabled children get much needed and valued respite support.

The event finished, appropriately enough, with lunch and a dramatic recital of "The Walrus and the Carpenter".