School kitchen refurbishment Kent — this case study by Kent Commercial Kitchens.
Case study · Schools & education
Herne Bay Infant and Nursery School, Herne Bay
Specifically, School kitchen refurbishment Kent — full kitchen refurbishment — expanded footprint, new cooking appliances and hygienic finishes, delivered inside a four-week school holiday window.
Client
Herne Bay Infant and Nursery School
Location
Herne Bay, Kent
Project value
£50k–£100k
Build time
4 weeks
The brief
School kitchen refurbishment Kent: kitchen too small for a growing school
Herne Bay Infant and Nursery School serves pupils from nursery age through to Year 2. Its catering kitchen had become outdated and undersized — no longer capable of meeting the throughput and hygiene standards the school needed to deliver fresh meals daily.
The brief was a full refurbishment: replace ageing cooking equipment and warewashing, improve the kitchen's hygiene finishes throughout, and find a way to increase usable workspace within the existing building envelope. All works had to be completed within the school holiday — four weeks, with the kitchen fully operational before staff and pupils returned.
What we did
More space, better equipment, EHO-ready finishes
Footprint expansion
A school kitchen refurbishment Kent for Herne Bay.
Specifically, rather than extending the building, we removed a non-load-bearing partition wall and doors between the kitchen and an adjacent storeroom, absorbing the space into the working kitchen. In particular, the reconfiguration gave the catering team a meaningfully larger workspace — improved workflow between prep, cooking and service — without any structural building works or planning involvement.
New cooking and warewashing
Additionally, the old gas cooking suite was replaced with a new specification across the cookline. In particular, rational combi ovens for batch cooking — suited to the volume and menu variety of a school producing meals for young children. Also, blue Seal cooking appliances across the main cooking positions. Therefore, maidaid dishwasher replacing the existing warewashing, improving throughput and water efficiency for a kitchen running at meal-service pace.
Hygienic finishes throughout
Furthermore, uPVC hygienic wall cladding installed across all kitchen surfaces — cleanable, durable, and EHO-compliant. In particular, non-slip safety vinyl flooring laid throughout, properly coved at the wall junctions. Also, both chosen to meet Food Safety Regulations and simplify daily cleaning for the school's catering staff.
Equipment specified
School-volume, compliance-ready
- Rational combi ovens — batch cooking for daily meal production
- Blue Seal cooking appliances — main cooking line
- Maidaid dishwasher — warewashing, meal-service throughput
- UPVC hygienic wall cladding — full kitchen coverage, EHO-compliant
- Non-slip safety vinyl flooring — coved finish throughout
The installation
Inside the refurbished kitchen
Rational combi ovens installed at Herne Bay Infant and Nursery School" loading="lazy">
The outcome
Operational before the bell rang
All works were completed within the four-week holiday window, with the kitchen signed off and fully operational before staff and pupils returned. The expanded footprint and new equipment gave the catering team a practical, compliant workspace — better flow between prep and service, modern appliances suited to daily school meal production, and surfaces that meet current Food Safety and EHO requirements. Delivered in-house, on time, with no disruption to the school.