The REHIS Food Hygiene Secondary Schools Initiative, which is co-funded by the Institute and Food Standards Scotland, was adapted to be delivered digitally to allow secondary school pupils in Scotland complete the REHIS Elementary Food Hygiene course (SCQF Level 5) through homeworking. This proved to be very welcome and vital for the Home Economics teachers in supporting their pupils during the pandemic lockdown.
The positive feedback from the teachers was overwhelming with over 14,000 pupils taking up the Initiative. The learning resources were securely loaded to the school platform which allowed the pupils to work at their own speed with the support of their teacher. The examination will be held on their return to the classroom in the autumn term.
A new development for this year was the co-funding of the REHIS Elementary Food and Health course (SCQF Level 5). This course covers a basic knowledge of healthy eating, nutrition and health. Again this course was also able to be delivered digitally and has been enormously well received by the schools.
The Scottish Government Benchmarking and Improving Evidence Team (BIET) now accepts REHIS qualifications to the Insight report. This reports on how secondary schools are performing based on achievement of qualifications and is part of the national improvement framework and improvement plan for Scottish education. A report from the Institute was submitted to the Insight team in July detailing all the S4-S6 pupils who have achieved REHIS qualifications and these will now be part of the overall plan.
