Kitchen Manager

Talbot House Children's Charity; Newcastle upon Tyne; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 32,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Death in service benefit (4x basic)

Employer Assist Program (EAP)

GP and physio access

Pension scheme with 6.75% match

Meals provided during term time

Ample parking

DBS update service paid by Charity

Training opportunities

Blue Light membership

Charity Workers Discount

Job summary

Talbot House Children's Charity is inviting applications for a term-time, permanent Kitchen Manager to lead the school kitchen, overseeing day-to-day operations, menu planning and food safety. The role involves hands-on food preparation, staff supervision, and ensuring meals meet dietary and nutritional needs while engaging pupils with creative food options.

The post offers term-time hours (35 per week) with the potential for additional deep-clean days, and benefits include a competitive salary,

Qualifications

• Experience leading a school/institution kitchen
• Ability to plan menus meeting dietary, allergen and nutritional requirements
• Hands-on food preparation and supervision of kitchen staff

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage day-to-day operations of the school kitchen
• Oversee ordering, stock control and meal planning to ensure sufficient covers
• Maintain high health, safety and hygiene standards
• Engage pupils in menu ideas, themed days and creative food choices
• Provide a positive, engaging dining experience for pupils and staff

Skills

Kitchen management

Food safety

Menu planning

Team leadership

Allergen awareness

Health & hygiene

Job description

Talbot House Children's Charity are looking to appoint a term-time, permanent, Kitchen Manager. The successful candidate will lead and manage the day to day operations of the school kitchen, ensuring high quality healthy meals for our pupils and staff. The role requires hands on food preparation with effective kitchen team leadership and management. Maintain high standards of health and hygiene, food safety and food service. Implementing successful processes, procedures and checking systems to monitor and maintain high quality healthy food. Manage the ordering processes, ensuring orders are accurate. Overall responsibility to ensure sufficient food is available for the number of covers required each day, and that every meal is served to meet the requirements of each individual. Take ownership of the kitchen, menu planning, ensuring meals meet dietary, allergen and nutritional requirements, while creating and an engaging and positive experience for our pupils. Be creative, work with the children to find out their views on menus options, think outside of the box, introduce theme days and be creative with food choices.

Our school is a non-maintained specialist school with a roll of 70 pupils, all with Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs) and complex needs. We have approximately 8 acres of land, and we are excited to continue to offer the best environment for our pupils to be successful. Starting date: September 2026, to be confirmed during interview. Hours of work are: Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 2.30pm, working 35 hours per week term-time, plus deep clean days. Salary: Competitive, pending experience (salary includes term time working hours, plus 5.6 weeks holidays, which are taken during the school holiday periods only). Please see our full job description and personal specification for full details.

Working at the Charity you will:

• receive death in service benefit, equal to 4 x basic salary.
• receive many additional benefits such as employer assist program (EAP), GP and physio access and more.
• have the option of joining the Charity's competitive pension scheme, matching contributions up to 6.75%.
• work in a bright and modern environment, with ample parking and grounds.
• be provided with meals while at work (during term time).
• be added to the DBS update service, paid for by the Charity.
• be offered opportunities to undertake training and gain qualifications relevant to the role.
• paid membership to Blue Light and membership to Charity Workers Discount.