In response to the rising cost-of-living crisis and concerning child poverty rates in 2021, the Welsh government...
Kitchens for Schools
Fully equipped kitchens are a crucial part of any education facility, ensuring pupils are well-nourished enough to thrive at school.
Don’t settle for a kitchen incapable of meeting your school’s needs. At The Airedale Group, we have the expertise and experience to create efficient kitchens that make life easy for your catering staff and contain everything needed to provide each student with healthy food, day after day.
We ensure that your kitchen is sufficiently equipped for the volume of students receiving meals, with the appropriate features to create nutritious food easily and efficiently, including appropriately sized combi ovens, induction hobs and more. From primary schools to colleges, work with us to create the kitchen your students and staff deserve.
Contact Us for Your School Kitchen Needs
Industrial Kitchens for the Education Sector
Our experts have all the know-how needed to create the very best kitchens for schools, whether you need a brand new school kitchen built and installed, a refurbishment of your existing school or college kitchen or an extension of your existing kitchen to handle increased demand.
Our service can be fully turnkey, meaning our experts will take you from creating a custom school kitchen design to securing the proper planning permissions and regulations, fabricating your school kitchen catering equipment, installing it and providing the proper ongoing maintenance.
School Kitchen Design: Tailored to Your Staff and Your Pupils
Whenever we design kitchens for schools, we consider factors like the size and shape of the building itself and the volume of students to cater to create a facility completely custom to your school. We won’t push an extension or significant upgrade unless that’s what your school needs – it’s all about what is best for you and your pupils.
For a preexisting school kitchen, we’ll survey the equipment you have and provide our expert judgment on any upgrades and new installations you may need.
Discover Our Interior Design Service
School Kitchen Installation: Full Turnkey Solution
At The Airedale Group, we’ll often prefabricate each piece of equipment and bring it to you ready to install if needed. Our installation process is streamlined and swift, so your school kitchen can be fully operational as soon as possible.
When installing school kitchens in Caerphilly, Wales, we completed installations on 73 primary schools to the highest standard in just six weeks, making Caerphilly one of the first Welsh regions to have all primary school kitchens fully refurbished in the wake of the Welsh government’s school meals plan for all primary-aged pupils.
Discover Our Build and Installation Service
Food Technology Kitchens
Schools and colleges don’t just need kitchens to feed their students – food technology kitchens are vital for teaching catering skills to young chefs. We at The Airedale Group can design and create training kitchens with all the equipment and facilities for students to learn cooking, food hygiene, prep and more with a layout conducive to teaching, learning and observing.
See our food technology kitchen case study from our work with Queen Elizabeth School.
School Kitchen Maintenance
Avoiding equipment breakdown is essential in a school kitchen, as malfunctioning commercial kitchen appliances can mean missed lunches for the young people in your school’s care. It is, therefore, vital to adopt a proactive planned preventative maintenance system to avoid breakdowns altogether. It is also imperative to ensure gas safety for the wellbeing of both students and staff.
Why Choose Airedale Group for Your School or College Kitchen?
At the Airedale Group, we go above and beyond to provide full turnkey school kitchen solutions. From our regionwide school kitchens project, which ensured that each school in Caerphilly, Wales, could comfortably handle providing every primary-aged child with free school meals, to our bespoke full-scale installation at Sandycroft Primary School, you know you can trust us with every aspect of your kitchen’s creation.
Talk to Us About Your School Kitchen Needs
Building a school and need it fitted with the perfect kitchen? Need to refurb your existing facility to handle new demands? Reach out to us and we’ll talk it through with you.
Industrial School Kitchen FAQs
What Catering Equipment is Needed in Schools?
Catering equipment for schools is simple and straightforward. Unlike restaurant kitchens, fryers, specialist grills, and more aren’t necessary. School catering equipment you might require includes:
- A combi oven
- Gas or Induction hobs
- An industrial dishwasher
We can also fit catering equipment needed for your school canteen design, including a proper servery where students can receive their meals, complete with refrigerated areas for fruits and jellies.
What Size of Oven Does My School Kitchen Require?
One of the most important considerations for a school kitchen is ensuring that your oven can handle the volume of food required for your student population. If your school is smaller or only a small portion of the student population eats school meals, you may only need a small combi oven, while large-scale school kitchens may require a floor-model combi oven.
Our kitchen design experts will consider the space available in your school kitchen and the volume of students you need to feed to select the most appropriate combi oven size for you.
Can You Upgrade an Existing School Kitchen
Existing kitchens in schools and colleges often require upgrades, be that to modernise the equipment, streamline the processes, handle an increased number of students, or as part of larger-scale improvements to your school.
At Airedale, we’ll handle your existing kitchen upgrade with the utmost care, surveying the equipment and facilities you already have to see what can be kept and what requires changing.
How Can I Ensure that My School Kitchen Meets UK Standards
We’ll create your school kitchen to help you comply with all necessary standards, including accessible kitchens to comply with DDA standards for disabled catering staff.
Our kitchen facilities can also help you to create school meals that are compliant with LACA standards, including ample refrigeration areas to store fresh fruit and vegetables to provide your students with a healthy lunch.
School Kitchen Case Studies
We take immense pride in the kitchens we have produced for schools and education facilities. See our case studies to discover how we’ve transformed school catering facilities that work better for students and staff.
School Kitchen Insights
Airedale have delivered hundreds of school kitchen new builds and refurbs over many year. We have amassed a wealth of knowledge that we share in our guides to creating, optimising and maintaining exceptional kitchens for school.
Recent Case Studies
Try Market Halls West End (Holles Street)
The UK’s largest food hall/dining market with multiple bars, “market stores” and rooftop terrace Airedale’s specialist consultancy-led...
First of at least three Ruby hotels set to be opened in the next year Partnership with...
Sandycroft County Primary School
Design and installation of large primary school’s commercial kitchen. All fabrication including bespoke canopy and extraction system...
; The design of a commercial kitchen should focus on ensuring efficiency, compliance, and importantly, safety. In this new blog, we explore guidance and best practice when optimising kitchen design for food hygiene -
Latest News
Client Testimonials
“The work that Airedale undertook from planning to completion was professional throughout. We are extremely pleased with the finished kitchen and the work that was completed. Their Account Manager advised, planned and updated us throughout and we found the process ‘stress free’. The catering team at Sandycroft are delighted with their new kitchen and really pleased that they were able to have input into the design and needs of their service provision. We have already engaged with Airedale for future planned projects following this investment and look forward to continuing our partnership.”
Newydd Catering & Cleaning
“We found Airedale to be wholly professional and willing to engage with us from the onset, listening to our own concerns and addressing these in a timely manner. We are very pleased with the overall project.”
Local Council
“We were hugely impressed with the professional presentation made by Airedale, their project sales manager had clearly done his research prior to our initial meeting and had a number of detailed, thoughtful solutions to our particular challenges. All of their staff were conscientious and the complex project was delivered within the strict timescale and budget allocated.”
Parker's Garden Centre
“Airedale have a great can-do attitude, are willing to help and have a great understanding of their trade and working on Heritage sites, meaning that that they are good and prompt at problem solving.”
Main Contractor
“The team at Airedale provided a reassuring sense of professionalism within our development. Their holistic considered approach meant that aspects that would not necessarily fall within their remit were identified and where required resolved prior to any issue or delay arising. Their willingness to share their experience and knowledge allowed the project to be delivered to the standard which exceeded our expectation.”
Langdale Estate and Spa
“Since the restaurant has opened there has been an increase in the staff footfall, with the well designed layout coupled with the use of the latest technology keeping queues down to a minimum. The whole installation despite its complexity was relatively pain free with the communication between Airedale’s Project Manager and ourselves being a key factor.”
Advanced Engineering Centre
“Our new catering facilities are second to none. As a primary provider of professional chef qualifications within the South West it was imperative to have a design which enabled excellent quality teaching and training. As a catering team we are extremely pleased with the final results; with the excellent support of Airedale it has enabled us to ensure first rate delivery of teaching in a first rate environment and will no doubt continue to aspire future chefs in future years.”
Petroc College, Barnstaple
“The Airedale Group were appointed because of their depth of knowledge and experience in delivering similar schemes. Their staff were very professional and on-hand to answer any queries we had whilst our Chef’s have commented that it is one of the best designed kitchens they have worked in.”
Acklam Hall
“We were continually impressed with Airedale’s performance on this scheme. They assisted us with value engineering options throughout the tender process; were very competitive commercially and managed the on-site works seamlessly. Further, following practical completion they have attended to the operator’s queries very quickly and held themselves professionally whilst working in a live hotel environment. ”
Main Contractor
BIM at Airedale
BIM at Airedale BIM (Building Information Modelling) is revolutionising construction and maintenance across the UK, and the commercial kitchen industry is no exception. Allowing for greater collaboration, data sharing...
Read More
