School Kitchen Assistant jobs

Kitchen Assistant

Location: Sandwich, Kent

Salary: £26,510 per annum (pro rata) 
Contract/Hours: Part Time – 36 hours per week.

Benefits: 

• Time off to recharge – 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) 
• 24/7 Confidential Helpline - speak to trained counsellors any time, 365 days a year, for emotional, wellbeing or mental health support. 
• Enhanced Well-being -8 sessions In-Person, Phone, or Online Counselling or CBT 
• Treat yourself - Staff discounts portal and blue light card with 15,000 + retailers 
• Childcare Discount – A whopping 60% off childcare within our nurseries and out of school clubs 
• Up to 3 Days Dependency Leave – to care for dependents in an emergency. 
• Paid maternity, adoption, and paternity leave 
• Gain professional qualifications - with excellent training/development opportunities.  
• Salary Finance - access to financial advice and the ability to manage savings or loans directly from your salary. 
• Secure your future - Pension with up to 7% employer contribution with included life assurance cover.   
• Staff discount portal: and Blue Light Card eligibility with 15,000 national retailers’ discounts  
• We're thrilled that you're considering a career with Spring. Spare us five minutes, and we will tell you what you need to know.  

Why Spring Nurseries  

Imagine a place where laughter echoes, imaginations run wild, and every day is a new adventure. That's Spring Nursery! We're not just a nursery; we are a family dedicated to creating a joyful and nurturing environment where children thrive. As part of Action for Children, we're on a mission to provide outstanding early education that's accessible to all.  

At Spring, we are committed to supporting your career growth! Check out our Spring Career Progression Map attached to this advert, which highlights the options for progression into a specialist role.   

A bit about the role: 

We're looking for Nursery Kitchen assistant to join the team at Spring. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who would like to take the next step in their career into a larger or commercial kitchen who's ready to take on a rewarding role helping to preparing nutritious, tasty meals for young children every day.

As our Kitchen assistant, you'll help assist with planning meals, preparation and serving of healthy snacks, lunch and tea for children attending our Nursery. You'll help manage stock levels, place food orders, and always maintain excellent hygiene and safety standards. 

A bit about the nursery:  

Saint Barts is a large, welcoming nursery with a friendly and supportive staff team. Although the setting is spacious, the rooms offer a real home-from-home feel, creating calm nurturing spaces for the children. The nursery provides a varied and engaging curriculum, including regular enrichment sessions and outdoor learning opportunities, giving children a rich and enjoyable early years’ experience.

What you’ll be doing   

In the role of Nursery Kitchen assistant, you'll be:  

• Liese with the chef planning healthy meals, that are nutritious, varied and tasty, considering the children's dietary and cultural requirements.  
• Assist in the preparation and cooking.
• Check food orders and make sure they are in on time.
• Ensure that the food is served to all Nursery rooms in a timely manner and appropriate dietary requirements are catered for.
• Keeping waste to a minimum, ensuring our impact on the environment is as minimal as it can be, and costs are kept low. 
• Ensuring that kitchen equipment is maintained regularly and maintaining a tidy, clean and hygienic area at the end of each day.
• Always following latest legislation in relation to food and food hygiene and taking part in all necessary and required training as needed.  

What we need from you    

In the role of Nursery Kitchen assistant, we're ideally looking for someone who has:  

• Hold or be willing to work towards a recognised food hygiene certificate.
• Previous experience within a catering environment.
• Previous experience of stock management.
• Knowledge of healthy eating and providing a balanced menu.
• Excellent organisational skills.  
• Experience in a similar role working in a catering environment. 

Interviews will take place in person week commencing the 22nd of June 2026.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion  

At Spring we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within the organisation. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups.  

Male staff are often under-represented within this sector, and we would like to encourage more male applicants for our roles.  

We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users; therefore, all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best-practice.  

Don't meet every single requirement?  

If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with the job description, we'd love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role within the Action for Children family.  

Application Process 
Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. 

There are 5 sections for you to complete - Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement & Information, Equality & Diversity, Submission & Declaration – please refer to the JD and Person Specification when applying.  

We also want to know what unique qualities you can bring to help us reach our vision for children and families.   

Talent Pool: We're sure you've got what it takes to join our ambitious team. If you're unsuccessful this time around, we'd like to hold your details in case similar jobs come up that you might be better suited for. But feel free to let us know if you'd rather, we didn't do that.  

If you need support with your application, please contact our Recruitment Partner 

We'll be happy to give you any support you require.

Pay: £26,510.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee discount
• Health & wellbeing programme

Work Location: In person