Activities: hands-on Cookery and Carpentry

Cookery

In the depths of January 2026, conversations with the Edinburgh New Town Cookery School, as it was then, started to dispel the gloom. The prospect of setting up a cookery course for up to 16 children at a time in this beautiful facility in the capital seemed too good to be true. Working with their team to produce a bespoke programme was a lot of fun – but nowhere near as much fun as the children will have in completing it!

The idea is that the children, Form 2 in this term’s case, can either opt for one-off ‘taster’ sessions, learning a couple of simple dishes and some important culinary skills in a 90 minute exposure to professional cookery, or they can commit to a six-week course, designed to fit with a term’s weekends in, the completion of which will result in a diploma from the Edinburgh Food and Drink Academy, as it has now become.

Here is what our chefs will be doing during the course of the term:

As you can see from the course outline, this is not just about learning a few recipes. This course adds skills and an understanding of the importance of a balanced and healthy diet and, perhaps, an appreciation of the challenges of preparing food at scale! The taster session at the end of last term and session 1 this term have been a great success, and you can follow the progress of the course on Instagram.

Carpentry

Another important conversation last term was about the possibility of setting up a chance for some of the children to have some woodwork lessons. This has not happened at Belhaven for some time. Fortunately, Shaun McIlhone (a member of our Estates team and known to many of you as one of our brilliant minibus drivers) has been able to find some time on a Sunday to come and offer two hours to the junior boarders to work on a series of projects in the Makerspace, and there are now six sets of tools for the children to learn to use in this safe and inspirational space.