In a national first, cookery and nutrition year 9 students at Bushey Meads School have been the lucky recipients of wild Alaska pink salmon to use in their classrooms, in a bid to improve their fish cookery skills.

The initiative is part of The Fish In Schools Hero programme which is run by the Food Teachers Centre, in partnership with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Together they will deliver an unprecedented 20,000 fillets of wild Alaska salmon to schools for cookery students to prepare up and down the country.

The programme aims to ensure that every child gets a chance to prepare, cook and eat fish before they leave school.

The year 9’s will be learning about sustainability and nutrition as well as developing delicious dishes with the Alaska salmon in their practical classes.

‘We at BMS are thrilled that we have been selected to receive the wild salmon from Alaska. It means that our students can not only learn about wild fisheries and the different tastes, textures and usages, but also cook with the fish themselves.’

To support teachers, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and Food Teachers Centre have also developed sample lesson plans, a training workshop and video recipes by chef and former Masterchef winner Dhruv Baker.

Both teachers and students are completing the online Alaska seafood training course which is a deep dive into the Alaskan fishing industry and the different species available from Alaska; www.alaskaseafooduniversity.co.uk

Rebecca Wilson, Trade Director for Alaska Seafood in Northern Europe commented, “We are delighted to partner with the Food Teachers Centre for their Fish in Schools Hero Programme. We have been working with the Fish In Schools Hero programme for over a year to get the Alaska salmon into students’ hands and we are pleased that students will finally get the opportunity to cook with it.”