Happy Days Nurseries in Yeovil is seeking a Kitchen Assistant, working 10 hours per week to join our friendly staff team.

What you will be doing:

As a kitchen assistant you will be working 10 hours per week Monday to Friday alongside our nursery cook. You will ensure all meals are prepared in accordance with the weekly menus, catering for all children and where appropriate provide alternatives to children with any special dietary needs.

Through effective working practices and essential record keeping, you will ensure that all food preparation complies with health regulations and guidelines and that all monthly records are consistently kept up to date.

Once the nutritious meals have been prepared and cooked, you will be responsible for assisting the cook in safely delivering the food to each individual nursery room, ensuring effective communication regarding allergies and special dietary requirements, and to ensure that the kitchen and all equipment is kept clean and tidy including washing up after each service.

At times our children will take part in cooking activities as part of our “Let’s Cook” programme, you will assist in the participation and preparation of these activities when needed and develop good working relationships with the wider staff team.

In circumstances where the nursery cook is absent, you will be responsible for over taking on the duties of cooking for the nursery and ensuring the smooth running of the day.

Who we’re looking for:

Our ideal kitchen assistant would have a knowledge and understanding of healthy eating programmes for children and cooking healthy meals. You will have a passion for offering children a varied and nutritious diet and want to make a difference through your role.

As you will be an integral part of the nursery team, you will have a strong ‘can do’ attitude and willingness to support the nursery team to achieve the best outcomes for our children, by providing meals which support a healthy diet.

Kitchen assistant and/or cooking experience in a nursery or school environment would be desired but not essential as training can be provided.

An awareness of dietary requirements would be an advantage although full training will be provided along with a free Food Hygiene certificate if the successful candidate does not already have one.

What we can offer you:

• Competitive hourly wage of £12.71 per hour
• 50% Childcare Discount
• Up to 4 Days gifted Christmas Closedown
• Ongoing professional development opportunities.
• Supportive and inclusive work environment.
• Opportunities for career growth within the organisation.

“Happy Days Nurseries are committed to the safety and wellbeing of the children in our care, as such the successful post holder will be required to undergo a robust vetting process, including an enhanced DBS Check and Reference History Checks”

“Our teams, whether in our nurseries or our support centre SHINE, they ensure we are delivering outstanding childcare to every child in our settings every day, this helps to make Happy Days a great place to work. By ensuring we are always recruiting, retaining and promoting a diverse mix of colleagues, who are representative of the communities within which our nurseries sits gives us the best opportunity to continue to deliver outstanding childcare”

Job Types: Part-time, Permanent

Pay: £12.71

Expected hours: 10 per week

Schedule: Monday to Friday

Work Location: In person