Food Technician

Job Description

Salary: Scale 3 - Actual salary £11,545
Contract: Term time only
Location: Thurstable School, Tiptree
Working Pattern: Variable each year in line with the school timetable (see below for 2025-26 pattern)

Are you passionate about food and supporting young people in their learning?

We are seeking a well-organised, enthusiastic and practical individual to join our Design & Technology team as a Food Technician. This is a rewarding and varied role supporting teachers and students in the delivery of high-quality food and nutrition lessons.

You will play a key part in ensuring lessons run smoothly by preparing resources, maintaining equipment, and supporting practical work in the classroom. You will also contribute to a safe and efficient working environment in our busy food rooms and wider department.

Key responsibilities include:

• Preparing and organising ingredients and equipment for practical lessons
• Supporting students and teachers during in-class demonstrations and activities
• Maintaining a clean, hygienic and safe kitchen environment
• Managing stock levels, shopping for ingredients, and placing orders
• Ensuring equipment is clean, maintained and safe for use
• Providing general administrative support to the department
• Assisting other areas of the department (e.g. textiles) when required

We are looking for someone who:

• Has an interest in food and nutrition
• Can follow recipes and work independently
• Has excellent organisational and communication skills
• Understands the importance of health, safety, and hygiene
• Can work effectively as part of a team in a busy school environment
• A Food Hygiene certificate and First Aid qualification are desirable, but training can be provided.

Due to our two-week timetable, the Food Technician's hours vary slightly between Week A and Week B. The working pattern is reviewed annually and may change each year based on the school timetable and curriculum needs. The successful candidate must be flexible and able to meet these changing requirements.

Working Pattern (2025-26)

Week A

• Monday:8.30am - 2.30pm
• Tuesday:8.30am- 2.00pm
• Wednesday:Off
• Thursday:11am - 4.30pm
• Friday:8.30am - 2.00pm

Week B

• Monday:8.30am - 2.30pm
• Tuesday:8.30am - 12.30pm
• Wednesday:Off
• Thursday:11am - 4.00pm
• Friday:8.30am - 1.30pm

Thurstable School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All appointments are subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks, including an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Information about the School

THE SCHOOL

A warm welcome to Thurstable School, a school built on ethos and with a clear aim of building knowledge and growing character. At the heart of everything we do lies our core values of aspire, respect and endeavour, values that are lived and not just laminated.

We are at an exciting time of our development as we strive to be a school of character and academic excellence and are looking forward to helping your child become the best version of themselves and achieve great academic outcomes whilst developing good character.

In the Summer of 2022 the GCSE results were “significantly above average” and in the top 20% of the country (Department for Education) and we are unashamedly clear that academic scholarship, reading and writing are at the heart of our curriculum.

We have the wonderful Thurstable Loves To Read programme as well as our innovative Morning Meeting programme based upon cognitive science and are committed that all students leave us with a reading age that matches their chronological age.

Equally important to our ethos is growing character and one of our mantras is “true character is doing the right thing when no one is looking”. We believe that character is taught, caught and sought and are committed to providing as many opportunities for the students to make memories from foreign exchanges, musical productions, Duke of Edinburgh schemes and numerous sporting opportunities.

We are committed to our mission statement of "Building Knowledge, Growing Character". We won’t get everything right, but we will always be honest, be led by our values and learn from the best schools in the country to make ours better.

Following the recent Ofsted inspection in 2025, rated as Good in all areas, Thurstable School remains proud of its continued progress and commitment to delivering excellent teaching, a broad and ambitious curriculum, and strong support for student wellbeing and character development.

OUR VALUES

Our core values ARE Thurstable. The values of Aspire, Respect and Endeavour are part of our DNA and inform all of our interactions and decisions at the school.

These values underpin our daily routines and are experienced in everything from the calm and purposeful atmosphere to the way our students interact with each other, staff and guests. We actively teach and role model these values and are very much part of our unique character curriculum.

We use the idea of 'Phronesis' to guide us. Phronesis is practical wisdom, a virtue which allows us to make the right decisions at the right time for the right reasons.

We expect our students and staff to use phronesis in their daily life at Thurstable.

ASPIRE

We aspire to the best jobs, college and university places We aim to achieve the highest outcomes possible We pursue excellence and seek recognition We take risks and love learning We are curious and ask questions

RESPECT

We respect ourselves, others and the environment We are respectful, polite and courteous at all times We are on time and we have the right equipment We treat others in our diverse community as we wish to be treated We always follow instructions: first time, every time We are kind

ENDEAVOUR

We work hard to achieve success We focus on the tasks in hand and tackle them conscientiously We have the resilience, tenacity and grit to keep going when others give up We represent the school and participate fully in school life We support others to achieve