Park Way Primary, Maidstone
A new-build primary school kitchen delivered through main contractor Redec, with an island canopy, fire-rated servery shutters, a tray-slide servery and full staff training.A new-build primary school kitchen, as one package inside a bigger build
Park Way Primary in Maidstone is a new build, and we were engaged through the main contractor, Redec. That makes the kitchen one trade package inside a much larger programme rather than a job of our own on an empty site.
The scope was the whole catering facility: an island canopy over the cooking, fire-rated servery shutters, a tray-slide servery for the dining hall, and full staff training so the kitchen team could use the equipment properly from the first day of service.
Someone else owns the programme, and half the scope is built into the building
School kitchens have one delivery window: the summer holidays. Miss it and you are looking at a year's delay, emergency catering costs and a headteacher who will not use you again. That is the constraint the whole sector works inside, and it is why school work is judged on dates before anything else.
Working through a main contractor adds a second layer to that. Your dates depend on trades ahead of you, and none of them are yours to move. If the ceiling grid, the electrical containment or the floor screed slips, the kitchen package absorbs it, and the finish date does not move to suit. So the sequencing has to be agreed early and the long-lead items ordered against a programme that is still changing.
Two parts of the scope also stop being kitchen equipment and become part of the building. An island canopy hangs off the structure rather than a wall, so the fixing points and the duct route have to be settled while the ceiling is still open, not after it is boarded. Fire-rated servery shutters sit in a compartment line: the opening they close is part of the building's fire strategy, so their position, size and rating have to be coordinated with the fire design and the builder's work rather than chosen from a catalogue at the end. Get either of those wrong and the fix is building work, on a programme with no slack in it.
Coordinated early, installed in one visit, trained the staff
We worked to Redec's programme, agreeing the canopy fixings, the duct route and the servery openings while the structure was still accessible, then delivered the installation with our own trades so the whole package came in as one visit rather than as a series of separate contractors following each other. Handover included commissioning and full training for the school's catering team, which on a school job matters as much as the equipment: the people using the kitchen on the first day of term are the ones who decide whether it works.
Four weeks, and the school opened on time
The kitchen package was delivered in four weeks and Park Way Primary opened on time. The school has an island canopy over the cooking, fire-rated shutters in the servery openings, a tray-slide servery serving the dining hall and a catering team trained on the equipment they are using.
Our school kitchen design page covers how we work with schools, academy trusts and main contractors, and our Maidstone and Mid Kent page lists other projects in the area.