Kitchen Manager
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School:
Talbot House Childrens Charity - School -
Location:
Newcastle -
Salary:
Competitive, pending experience (salary includes term time working hours, plus deep clean days, plus 5.6 weeks holidays, which are taken during the school holiday periods only). -
Hours:
Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 2:30pm. -
Contractual Status:
Permanent -
Closing Date:
31st May 2026
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.
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:
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receive death in service benefit, equal to 4 x basic salary.
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receive many additional benefits such as employer assist program (EAP), GP and physio access and more.
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have the option of joining the Charity’s competitive pension scheme, matching contributions up to 6.75%.
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work in a bright and modern environment, with ample parking and grounds.
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be provided with meals while at work (during term time).
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be added to the DBS update service, paid for by the Charity.
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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: hr@talbothousecc.org.uk
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 0191 229 0111 or email the HR Department at:
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. Please see link for further information:
Supporting documents
Application FormOther Supporting Documents:
Job Description & Personal Specification Tips for Applicants Diversity Monitoring FormTalbot House Childrens Charity - School
Talbot House Children’s Charity Limited is situated in the North East of England and is a non-maintained specialist school with pupils ranging from Reception to Key Stage 4. Class sizes are rarely bigger than 6 pupils.
The school provides education for up to 70 children who have various complex needs which include SEMH, ASD, ADHD, early childhood trauma and learning disabilities. We are a ‘Thrive’ school and provide the services of an Occupational Therapist and Speech and Language Therapist. We pride ourselves that when children leave us in Year 11, they leave with qualifications including GCSE’s and go onto college placements with the help of our career’s advisors.
We have children on roll from local authorities around the Northeast, and we are proud to communicate our vision to them and our passion for the outcomes we want for the children in our school. Children are placed in one of our four zones within the school depending on stage not age which enables them to progress at their own pace. Referrals can come directly from local authorities; however, we are seeing more parental, word of mouth and previous school referrals recently.
As a charitable organisation, we do not have any shareholders, so all surpluses are reinvested into Talbot House. This has allowed us to make some substantial changes over the last 10 years. There has been lots of developments to the building and grounds which include new playgrounds, sports facilities, and an outdoor gym along with redevelopment of the building, a new science classroom, a new heating system and roof. We have also have developed a nature garden which includes an allotment, giant reading chair, mud kitchen, sensory paths and an outside classroom.
We aim to ensure every child aspires to become the best they can be. To achieve this, our staff must also aspire to be the best they can be and share our values; to care for, respect and support one another in this endeavour.
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