‘Tunnock’s Teacake Challenge’ Goes Viral

Last December, Mrs Deborah Prigg of Westfield Academy set an interesting task for her Year 10 GCSE Food & Nutrition students.   Always looking for different ways to inspire her students, Mrs Prigg designed a lesson in which they had to create a restaurant worthy plate, with a single Tunnock’s Teacake and a restricted list of additional ingredients.  It was dubbed the ‘Teacake Challenge’. 

The students thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, spending lots of time planning and trialling their designs until they were perfect.   Mrs Prigg was so proud of their results that she uploaded the photos to a social networking group ‘The Food Teachers Centre’.  From there her idea snowballed with teachers from all over the country taking on the challenge and posting their amazing images.  It is safe to say it ‘went viral’ and the Food Teachers Centre have said it is the most downloaded resource to date and, in September, Mrs Prigg received an award from the FTC for ‘Outstanding Contribution’ which, along with the many kind comments from the Food Teaching community, she was very humbled to receive.

In September of this year, Mrs Prigg was honoured to be invited to the University of London to meet the Directors of Tunnock’s and the Food Teacher Centre at a National Conference, where they launched a new National Competition called ‘The Teacake Challenge’.  This is now open to all schools in the UK, and Mrs Prigg will be on the judging panel, alongside representatives from Tunnock’s and the FTC.   Whilst at the University she also hosted workshops for teachers in the Catering College, showing staff how to plate and present food. 

Mrs Prigg said “The food students at Westfield can’t believe how much attention our small idea has had and how it is now a National Competition.  I must thank them for their creativeness and willingness to participate in one of my mad ideas.”

Released On 12th Dec 2018