During the last half term, Year 6 have learnt about healthy living and how to maintain a healthy, balanced diet in Science. They have recently applied this knowledge to a D.T. project, where they had to design and make a healthy pizza. We wanted to take a food product that was otherwise thought of as very fattening and unhealthy, and make sure it contained all major food groups and could help people maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The children first started with some market research, looking at pizzas already sold in supermarkets and what their nutritional content was like. After being shocked at the salt, calories and fat content in products already sold, we set a limit to make sure our pizza was less than 10g of fat (much less than half the competition) and under 500 calories. We also vowed to make our packaging and adverts more persuasive and more attractive than the competition we saw. Our design brief was now set!

The children designed their pizza, counting the nutritional values of what they selected for the dough (made from a less fattening bread dough), cheese (low fat) and toppings (lean meat, fruit and vegetables). Once the children had designed their pizza and knew the nutritional details, we linked our project to English and wrote persuasive adverts to try to sell their pizzas. They then wrote formal, persuasive letters to supermarkets to try to convince them to sell the pizzas in their stores. There were some extremely compelling arguments! Next came the children’s pizza boxes, for which the children learnt all about the statutory requirements for what must be labelled and shown on food packaging. Using the net shape of a card pizza box and making sure they included all statutory information, the children designed and made their own pizza boxes that were sturdy, eye catching and informative. 

To complete the project, the children of course had to actually make their pizzas! After a demonstration from Miss Hoyle, the children wrote detailed, step by step instructions for how to make their pizza from scratch, before making their own pizza in class. After kneading and rolling their dough, the children spread their sauce, added their toppings and placed them in the oven for half an hour before devouring the finished product.