School Catering Jobs
School catering jobs are permanent roles in school kitchens and dining halls, running from catering assistant through to chef manager in charge of the site. You will find them in primary and secondary schools, academy trusts, independent schools, and the contract caterers who run kitchens on a school’s behalf.
This guide covers the four roles you will see advertised, what each one asks for, how term-time contracts and pay actually work, and how to move across if you are currently cooking in a commercial kitchen.
What does a school catering job actually involve?
Most kitchens open between half six and eight, depending on whether the breakfast club runs on site. The morning is spent on preparation and cooking for a service window that will not move: lunch happens when the timetable says it happens.
Service is short and intense. A large secondary can push 800 meals through in an hour across two sittings. You cook at volume, hold to the School Food Standards, and manage allergens for named children rather than for a table of anonymous customers.
Then comes clearing down, cleaning, and, in senior roles, the paperwork: stock counts, orders, waste, temperature records. Most sites are locked up by mid-afternoon.
The rhythm is what people notice first. No dinner service, no split shifts, and the week finishes on Friday afternoon.
The four main school catering roles
Catering assistant
This is the entry route most people take. You prepare and portion food, run the servery, work the till, and clean down afterwards. No formal catering qualification is needed to start, and employers will usually fund your food safety training once you are in post.
It is still the role people mean by dinner lady jobs, though schools have advertised it as a catering assistant for years. If you have served customers at pace anywhere, in retail, care or hospitality, you already have most of what a school looks for.
Chef or cook
You cook the food in a small primary, which can mean you and one assistant producing 150 meals from scratch. In a secondary, you are part of a team working through a set menu cycle.
The skill sits in volume and consistency rather than complexity. You cook to nutritional standards, portion controls, a budget set elsewhere, and a clock. Employers look for a food preparation qualification or solid kitchen experience and increasingly for someone who can cook from raw ingredients rather than reheat.
Chef manager
The step most assistants and cooks aim for. You run the kitchen: the team, the rota, the menus, the budget, the ordering, and the relationship with the head chef or the client.
It is a management job with a chef’s hands. Expect to need Level 3 food safety, evidence that you have led a team, and enough commercial sense to manage food costs and a team. In return you get a site of your own and, inside most contract catering businesses, a route towards area management.
Relief chef manager
You cover chef managers across a patch, dropping into kitchens during holidays, sickness, and vacancies. Every week looks different, and you will need to be prepared to travel.
It suits people who are adaptable and can walk into an unfamiliar kitchen, understand the priorities, and run the day. Seeing a dozen operations up close is also the fastest way to gain the experience an area role requires.
Role | Typical duties | Experience needed | Typical next step |
|---|---|---|---|
Catering assistant | Prep, portioning, servery, tills, cleaning down | None required; trained on the job | Cook |
Chef or cook | Cooking at volume to menu, allergens, and food safety records | Kitchen experience or a food preparation qualification | Chef manager |
Chef manager | Team, rota, menus, budget, ordering, client relationship | Team leadership plus Level 3 food safety | Multi-site or area management |
Relief chef manager | Covering chef managers across several sites | Chef manager experience and a driving licence | Area management |
Moving from hospitality into school catering
School catering generally means Term-time contracts, no evening service, no weekends, and a rota you can plan a life around. The chefs we place from commercial kitchens tend to say the same thing afterwards: they stopped resenting the job and enjoyed a real work-life balance they hadn’t experienced before.
Be clear about the trade-off, because it is real. A school kitchen usually pays less than a comparable commercial role; term-time salaries are prorated, and the cooking must meet nutritional standards within a tight per-head budget. If invention is the part of the work that keeps you in the industry, you will feel its absence.
What transfers straight across: service under time pressure, allergen discipline, food cost control, and running a team through a rush. The chef manager role is the one schools and caterers struggle hardest to fill, and a competent commercial chef is exactly who they are looking for. Our catering and hospitality recruitment team places those moves regularly.
Qualifications, checks and training
The Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering is the baseline across the sector. Chef managers are normally expected to hold Level 3. Food preparation and cooking certificates carry weight for cooks and above, though experience often stands in for them.
Every role needs an enhanced DBS check because the job puts you on a site full of children. Your employer applies for it and covers the cost, and it reports both spent and unspent convictions. You will also complete safeguarding training, which focuses on recognising and reporting concerns rather than anything related to the kitchen.
Allergen training is taken seriously everywhere now, and Natasha’s Law brought labelling requirements that schools are audited against. Senior roles need enough numeracy to handle stock, ordering, and food cost.
Role | Usually expected | Also valued |
|---|---|---|
Catering assistant | Enhanced DBS, safeguarding, allergen awareness | Level 2 food safety, customer-facing experience |
Chef or cook | Level 2 food safety, enhanced DBS | Food preparation certificate, volume cooking experience |
Chef manager | Level 3 food safety, enhanced DBS, team leadership | Budget and stock control, contract catering background |
Pay, hours and term-time contracts
Two contract types dominate. Term-time-only means working 38 or 39 weeks a year, with your annual pay spread evenly across twelve months so nothing stops in August. All-year-round contracts mainly appear in independent schools, where boarding, letting, and conference business keep the kitchen open.
The number in an advert is not always the same as the number in your bank. Employers often quote a full-time equivalent salary with the pro-rata figure further down the page, so read to the end before you compare two roles.
What moves pay: the role, the region, in-house versus contract caterer, the size of the site, and whether you carry budget responsibility. The jump from cook to chef manager is the biggest single step in the sector, which is why the Level 3 qualification is worth taking. For live figures, current catering vacancies show what employers are paying now.
Where school catering jobs are based. There are four types of employers, and the job changes depending on which one you join.
In-house school and academy trust kitchens employ you directly. You are part of the school staff, you know the children, and the culture is the school’s own.
Contract caterers run kitchens under a commercial contract with the school. More sites, more structure, clearer promotion routes, and a client relationship to manage alongside the cooking.
Local authority catering services still supply many primary schools, sometimes producing for several sites from a single kitchen.
Independent schools run the largest operations, with boarding, events, and hospitality around the school day, so the work sits closer to a hotel kitchen. Primary sites are smaller and more personal; secondary kitchens handle higher volumes, offer more choice, and use a cashless system with reporting.
How Pineapple Recruitment can help
We place people permanently rather than filling day-rate gaps, and we keep our client list deliberately short so we know the kitchens we send people into.
That matters more here than in most sectors because school catering spans two markets. Our catering and hospitality recruitment desk knows the chefs and the caterers. Our education recruitment desk knows the schools and the trusts. Ash Chopra, Talent Acquisition & Culinary Lead, works across both.
Once an interview is confirmed, you get a proper briefing: who you are meeting, how the site runs, what they are likely to ask. Your CV stays with us until you say otherwise, so you can look while you are still in post.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a qualification to work in school catering?
Not for entry-level roles. Catering assistants are trained on the job, with the employer usually funding a Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering. Cooks are expected to bring kitchen experience or a food preparation certificate, and chef managers typically need Level 3 food safety certification.
Do school catering staff get paid during the school holidays?
On a term-time-only contract, yes. You are paid for the 38 or 39 weeks you work, but employers spread that total across twelve months so your income stays level through the holidays. Independent schools more often offer all-year-round contracts.
Do I need a DBS check for a school catering job?
Yes. Every role on a school site needs an enhanced DBS check, which your employer arranges and pays for. It reports spent and unspent convictions. You will also complete safeguarding training before or shortly after you start.
Can I move into school catering from a restaurant or pub kitchen?
Yes, and employers want you. Service under pressure, allergen management, and food cost control all transfer directly. Expect a lower salary than a comparable commercial role, offset by term-time hours, no evening service and no weekends.
What hours do school catering staff work?
Early starts and early finishes. Kitchens typically open between 6.30 and 8 am and close by mid-afternoon, term time only. Catering assistant roles are often part-time around lunch, while chef and chef manager posts are usually full-time across the school week.