Sausage, lentil & root vegetable stew
Six budget sausages, a bag of red lentils, an onion, a carrot, a parsnip, tinned tomatoes, paprika. Serves four. Comes in well under £8 at a major UK supermarket on a typical week.
Module 03 · 2 weeks · KS3 / KS4
Micro-Budgeting.
The £10 family meal survival challenge.
The single most powerful thing many of our students will leave the placement able to do is this: walk into the nearest supermarket with £10 in their pocket and feed four people that night. That is not a curriculum point. That is a piece of adulthood, handed early to a young person whose home life often requires it of them anyway.
Module 3 is built around that single, repeated task - but designed so that the student is held while they learn it. The maths is real (we use Functional Skills criteria, not made-up sums). The shop is real. The meal is real. And the conversation we have around the table afterwards is the most honest piece of citizenship education in the curriculum.
The starting point
What the data says about teenage food insecurity.
2.7m+
children estimated to be living in households experiencing food insecurity in the UK (Food Foundation Food Insecurity Tracker, latest published wave).
35%
of households claiming Universal Credit reported skipping or shrinking meals in the most recent Food Foundation tracking quarter.
£90+
estimated minimum weekly food cost for a family of four to follow the NHS Eatwell Guide, per Food Foundation Broken Plate analyses.
Figures held as a directional reminder - replaced with the latest published source at every bid window. The point of the module is not the number; it is the reality the number describes.
The challenge
The £10 family meal, week by week.
Week 1
The supervised shop
The group plans together. We map the nearest supermarket, write a shopping list, estimate the basket, walk it together, and then check the actual against the estimate. We talk about own-brand versus branded, about unit price labels on the shelf edge, and about reduced-to-clear stickers. We come back. We cook. We eat.
Week 2
The independent shop
With staff in the same shop but at a distance, students complete the same task on their own. They write the list. They walk it. They self-checkout. They keep the receipt. They reflect on the gap between estimate and actual - almost always smaller than it was a week ago. The minute they realise they can do this, you can see it in their face.
Recipes we anchor the module with
Cheap, dignified, nourishing.
Family chickpea curry & rice
Two tins of chickpeas, an onion, a tin of tomatoes, garlic, curry powder, frozen spinach, rice. Vegan by default. Naturally allergen-friendly. Embarrasses many takeaway equivalents on taste.
Pasta with a real tomato sauce
A 500g bag of pasta, two tins of tomatoes, an onion, garlic, dried herbs, a tin of tuna or a bag of frozen peas. We use this recipe to teach unit pricing - pasta brand versus own-brand, per-100g, per-portion.
Roast tray dinner
A pack of budget chicken thighs, potatoes, a tin of butter beans, a lemon, dried herbs, frozen broccoli. One tray. One oven. Twenty minutes of prep. A meal that feels generous and looks like Sunday lunch.
Recipes are updated termly against the actual current shelf price at a named local supermarket. Module materials carry the date of the most recent price check.
The maths inside
Functional Skills criteria, hidden inside the task.
The conversation we always have
Cost-of-living is not a behaviour problem.
At some point in every Module 3 placement, a student will say something quietly devastating about food at home. We are trained for that conversation. Designated Safeguarding Lead Kirsty Wilson is the named contact for any disclosure that meets the threshold for referral; everything below threshold is handled with dignity, and where appropriate, with a discreet conversation with the home school’s pastoral team.
No student is ever asked to pay for ingredients used in the placement. Module costs are included in the commissioning fee.