Domestic Science- 1960’s.

Maybe 30 years after I did it, dd1 had to make exactly the same cookery apron. She absolutely loathed sewing (still does) so I ended up doing most of it (I was reasonably competent) and was rewarded with ‘C+. Neatness and accuracy are 2 skills which you must practice.(sic).’ 😂

I went to a girl's grammar school. In the first year we alternated cookery with needlework. We also had to sew our own aprons and trim with house colour and embroider our name across the bib.
I dropped needlework, hated following dress patterns, did cookery and got a grade 1 O'level.
All my life I have loved making things, sewing, crochet and knitting. I made my own simple clothes without patterns.
Cooking has always felt like a chore apart from some cake making.
Now I only cook using the microwave and air fryer.

I was not taught how to boil an egg or sew on a button. I was educated in Scotland and achieved an A grade in my 11+. Whether I wanted to or not, that meant Physics and Chemistry, and I was useless at both.

I must have picked up something from Latin classes because they have been helpful in my life.

French was compulsory, and that was one of my best subjects, with English and I added on Italian, but Spanish would have been more useful throughout my life.

I married a linguist and he laughed at my efforts.

I did Needlework with a very fussy teacher, she would make you unpick and redo anything that was not up to her standards. I think everyone took about a year to make an apron (never used) and a skirt. Made much more at home with my Mum!
Cookery at O level was not done in our school due to lack of facilities so we had to walk about 15 minutes to the local college, carrying all our ingredients. Take the lesson and then walk back to school with the completed food. Passed the O level but had always enjoyed cooking with my Nan and learnt more from her over the years.

I didn't pass DS with a particularly good grade either, in part because I detested the theory. But I did turn out to be a reasonable cook and haven't poisoned anyone.......yet!
My AC both learned to cook in secondary school but due to curriculum changes all the GC have had very sparse cooked classes. However, that is easily rectified with two AC now being qualified chefs. The food my GC can cook is fabulous.

I envy all of you who did domestic science at school. I didn’t get the option and Mother wouldn’t have anyone in the kitchen when she was cooking. If she was doing a full roast dinner we generally left the house altogether! Delia Smith was my salvation.

We didn't do domestic science at the grammar school I attended. There wasn't even the option. However, before then I was at a comprehensive and there was both cookery and typing classes.
(This was because we were living abroad and there wasn't a great choice of schools).

I started grammar school in 1965. We had sewing in the first year, making the obligatory gingham apron, after which we could sew what we liked. Some girls were really good but we were all capable of making a simple top or skirt - that was taken for granted.

In the 2nd year we had sewing and cookery. (The boys had woodwork and "local history"). In the 3rd year we did just the cookery.

The cookers were all gas down one side of the room and electric down the other. We were supposed to swap after the year but somehow we didn't so I have to this day never successfully cooked with gas.

We didn't have a book - only recipes we wrote down in our exercise books. The teacher dictated them to us or wrote them on the board and we had to have them copied out by the time the bell went. I still have those exercise books and refer to them occasionally. I have never noticed the quantities or thought them small but I'll have another look in the light of the OP. We all had to take 9 O levels but weren't even aware that there was such a thing as O level DS

Although it was a Grammar School, it was tiny and didn't have the resources for more than one foreign language. As I said, 9 O levels were compulsory. We had to drop one science subject out of chemistry, physics, biology, but had to do maths, eng. lang., eng. lit., history, geography, French and art. I was itching to do more languages because I did well in French, so I came to Germany to learn German after I left. (The rest, as they say, is history)

I only recently learned that my sister had had the option of dropping one arts subject and had swapped history for music. I wish I had been allowed to do that. I hated art with a vengeance. The art teacher was a lecherous old b*t*d as well.

Since school I regret not having done more geography, particularly geology, chemistry, particularly organic chemistry, and history, particularly European history, all of which I've been learning about ever since.

I don't expect anyone has read this whole post. But for those who have, and who have made it through the whole thread, I am sure you will agree that it's fascinating to read how different schools allocated varying importance to different subjects.

TerriBull

Sarnia

Domestic Science, as it was in my day, is a shadow of what it was then. My 12 year old GD was shown how to make a sandwich in last week's lesson.

My sons' domestic science lessons were appalling. One week one of them had to bring in a Caesar Salad kit, without making the dressing, that was already in a sachet, pointless {hmm] Another week, involved the making of chocolate mouse with two ingredients, chocolate and cream, most pupils devoured the chocolate on the way to school My granddaughter brought a cheesecake with her, she'd made at school, a couple of weeks ago, it was very nice, but essentially still somewhat of an assembly job. Teach them to cook meals please, using in season produce with an emphasis on nutrition.

I agree with you. As well as the sandwich lesson, my GD had to make a pizza with 4 toppings of her choice. You are spot on when you describe it as an assembly job. She had to take in a ready made pizza base, a tube of tomato puree and her toppings which were ham, basil and cheese which was bought ready grated, mustn't overdo it. Not a shred of cooling skills needed in the entire operation.

In the first two years at Grammar school we did art, sewing and cookery for one term each. I didn't like any of them. I hated art and could not draw. Cooking and sewing I had learnt at home as my mother was good at both and the little we did at school was very basic.
I did not choose Domestic Science for O level. I had no interest in doing at school what I already did at home.

I couldn't wait to be rid of those cookery lessons. They taught me nothing I didn't learn at home from my mother. The teacher always gave me a poor assessment, though I never had any complaints from my family. And - 70 years later - I still don't.

Re O levels, I wanted to do music, since I loathed history and wasn’t keen on geography, but I had to do one or the other. Which didn’t fit the timetable with music, so that was out.

For some reason I’ve forgotten, I had to do physics-with-chemistry, but towards the end of the first O,level year we had the new option of Russian.
Languages (and English) were the only subjects I was any good at, so I was delighted to be able to drop P with C, for Russian.

We had just one year to do O level! But we had a brilliant teacher, for only 10 of us. She gave us the Penguin Teach Yourself book before the summer holidays and told us to do the first 5 chapters before the start of the Autumn term.

I only recently learned that my sister had had the option of dropping one arts subject and had swapped history for music. I wish I had been allowed to do that. I hated art with a vengeance.
I dropped Art to concentrate on Maths and Sciences but, quite honestly, Art would have been an easy exam and would have meant one more 'O' level.

I still have the recipe book from my lessons.
Shepherd pie can be made with beef or lamb mince, either is shepherds pie, no cottage pie anywhere.

I only did cookery and needlework for a year. What a waste of time that was, first cookery lesson was to make tea and toast. I could cook a dinner for 9 by 11. Then needlework, I did get to sew on the lovely bernina machines, learnt how to do tailors tacks and made a gathered skirt. My mother had already taught me all that and more, also how to use an ancient singer treadle

I hated art too, teacher was useless

I did sciences instead but was envious of the lovely christmas cakes that the girls produced. Those gondola baskets , I loved them

At my all-girls school we had to do ‘needlework’ and ‘cookery’ from what we now call Y7 to Y9. Then we had to do one or the other at O level. I chose cookery I have been grateful ever since.
We covered an immense amount in both. In spite of never being able to please my teacher, I got the top grade! She couldn’t believe it (neither could I, although - for once - everything went right).
During the O level course we made and decorated a Christmas cake, including making marzipan and royal icing from scratch. Since then (1966) I have made at least one cake every year, though I’m afraid I soon ‘discovered’ shop bought marzipan and icing. I just wish this course was available to all girls and boys now. (2 of my 3 sons chose ‘food technology’ as a compulsory technology GCSE back in the 1990s and believe me it bore no comparison. They seemed to spend an awful lot of time making and re-making pizza and then designing and making a box for it!)

AGAA4

Before we could begin cookery we had to sew an apron!

Me too! What a mess this cack handed lefty made of it too. Most memorable recipes, soused herring, gooseberry fool and chocolate mousse. Nothing useful to me. I was convinced that I couldn’t cook until I got married and discovered that I wasn’t all that bad.

Tomato and Herring Pie sounds revolting.....How many biscuits did your recipe make? 4? Lol

RedRidingHood

I did domestic science in the early 70s. The cookery department had a "flat". A little dining room and kitchen. We took turns to get the flat for a day. We had to plan the menu, buy and cook the food for a three course meal and invite the teacher of our choice for a meal.

We weren't allowed to do wood or metal work and had to do typing which I hated.

My school also had a little flat. Mostly made tea and scones or rock cakes. Cleaned the flat from top to bottom. I think some girl was sent to have a bath now and then.
I was mid to late 70s and was allowed the odd woodwork and metalwork lesson. A trail blazer me

Domestic science lessons at my girls' grammar school in the 1950s consisted of cooking, sewing and laundry which included ironing (we were to be the housewives of tomorrow). I don't remember what we cooked but I do remember the teacher explaining how to fry an egg. She began with the immortal words "I don't know if any of you have ever fried yourselves". Cue sniggers of laughter from those of us versed in the subtleties of English grammar. I remember baking bread - so hard that not even the birds that frequented our bird table would attempt it. During my years at university I made great use of "Cooking in a Bedsitter" by Katherine Whitehorn.

Mojack26

Tomato and Herring Pie sounds revolting.....How many biscuits did your recipe make? 4? Lol

The T&H pie- it was awful, full of bones. Perhaps I didn’t remove them properly? 😔

As for the biscuits, well, as I said in my OP, no one seemed troubled by their BMI back in the 60’s.

I was at grammar school in the mid fifties. I remember a Domestic Science room, but I am sure I never did any cooking. I do remember being taught to cut out a dress from a pattern, and about darts and seams. These lessons stopped at the end of the second year when you chose your O level subjects.
I remember also being taught to knit at junior school. Kettle holders with grey oily wool.In top juniors we had an afternoon with a young woman who helped us girls to sew a petticoat. Her name was Miss Curtis and she looked just like Snow White in the Disney film. What the boys did,I have no idea.

I only did half a term of cooking as I moved schools. In that time we made veg soup, soused herring and finally a cake. I am not a very competent cook and can get quite panicked at times. I blame this on the reception I got when I broke the Mason Cash mixing bowl when washing up and the teacher’s reaction.
My DD in the 80s got an A for Home Ec (very theory based) but then at university phoned us up to ask how to make jacket potato!

The practical skills of domestic science GCE have stayed relevant, apart from English, not much else for that age has.

I too had to make an Apron!
DS was for the first 2 years then we could drop it. We all did, but I still make my Sponge the way I was taught all those years ago.
My 32 Yr old DD, never had Cookery/DS at her Senior School, the kitchens were turned into other classrooms. She not a bad cook though.