Kitchen Manager

Job Details

• Post Date: April 30, 2026
• Apply Before: May 31, 2026
• Job ID: 13561
• Offered Salary: £21,000
• Location: Central (Newcastle upon Tyne)
• Job Type: Full-time

Job Description

[Employer hidden — sign up to reveal] 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 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.

To apply, you must have at least 2 years’ previous experience of kitchen manager experience, ideally within a school kitchen, although this is not essential. You must also hold a Level 2 certificate in Food Preparation or equivalent plus a Level 3 Food Hygiene certificate.

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.

If you believe you have what it takes to enhance our fantastic kitchen team please apply.

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.

To apply please fully complete our application form, using the personal specification to help you complete the ‘Personal Statement’ section of the form. Applicants who read our Tips for Applicants document before completing this section of our application form are more likely to be offered an interview. You will find our Tips for Applicants document and Application Form attached above. Please send your completed application form to: [contact hidden]

We can only accept a Charity Application Form for this role. We are not able to accept CVs for any role. If you submit a CV it will not be reviewed. Please view our safer recruitment policy. Applicants should be aware that any relevant issues arising from their declarations and references will be addressed at interview.

Closing Date: Midnight, Sunday, 31 May 2026 (please note: we reserve the right to short list, interview and close this vacancy early, or extend the deadline, depending on the level of response).

Shortlisting: w/c Monday, 01 June 2026

Interview Date: w/c Monday, 08 June 2026

If you have any queries regarding this position or the application process, please contact HR on [contact hidden] or email the HR Department at: [contact hidden]

Note: The Charity is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expect all staff to share this commitment. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expect all staff to share this commitment (see full policy details on our website). This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants should be aware that the post will only be offered to successful candidates subject to an Enhanced DBS check as well as other employment clearances and continued subscription to the DBS Update Service.

Application Documents

• Application Form
• Job Description & Person Specification
• Tips for Applicants
• Diversity Monitoring Form
• Safer Recruitment Policy
• Safeguarding Policy
• Privacy Notice - Staff