Nursery Cook

Nursery Cook

Location: Exeter 

Salary: up to £27,135.22 per annum (pro rata) 
Contract/Hours: Permanent/Part Time – 25 hours per week

Closing date: Midnight on the 19^th of August 2026  

Benefits:  

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays 
• Professional qualifications and excellent training 
• Flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages  
• Up to 5% employer contribution and life assurance cover  
• Blue Light Card eligibility with discounts at 15,000 national retailers  

We're thrilled that you're considering a career with Spring. Spare us five minutes, and we will tell you what you need to know. 

A bit about the role:

Are you passionate about preparing nutritious, delicious meals that help children thrive? We're looking for a caring organised nursery cook to join our team at Spring Cedars.

In this role, you'll plan and prepare healthy, balanced meals and snacks for children aged 0 to 5, ensuring all dietary, allergy and nutritional requirements are met.  You'll be responsible for maintaining high standards of food hygiene, safety and cleanliness in the kitchen while managing stock, ordering supplies and working within budget.

We're looking for someone with previous experience working in a busy commercial kitchen or catering environment, confident preparing meals for larger numbers and can work efficiently while maintaining exceptional food hygiene standards.

You'll work closely with the nursery team to create positive mealtime experiences that encourage children to develop healthy eating habits from an early age. If you take pride in providing great food and want to make a real difference to children's well-being every day we'd love to hear from you.

A bit about the nursery: 

Spring Cedars Is a friendly and welcoming nursery in Exeter, providing high quality care and early education for children from birth to five years. As part of spring by Action for Children, we're passionate about creating a safe nurturing environment where children can learn grow and thrive

Why Spring Nurseries 

Imagine a place where laughter echoes, imaginations run wild, and every day is new adventure. At Spring Nurseries, where more than a collection of settings, we are a family, dedicated to nurturing children to thrive and supporting staff through a clear career pathway.  

Whether this is a career change for you or the next step in your journey, we'd love to hear from you.  

We work together to reach our mission to give children a healthy start in life.  

Good luck! We can't wait to hear from you.   

Contact:  Shannon Neander at [email protected] quoting reference 13504  
 

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion 

At Spring we're dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. We actively encourage applications from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic and disabled candidates as they are under-represented within the organisation. We want to take deliberate and purposeful action to ensure equal opportunity to all groups. 

Male staff are often under-represented within this sector, and we would like to encourage more male applicants for our roles. 

We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users; therefore, all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best-practice. 

Don't meet every single requirement? 
 

If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with the job description, we'd love you to apply anyway. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role within the Action for Children family. 

Application Process

Please note we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

There are 5 sections for you to complete - Personal Details, CV, Supporting Statement & Information, Equality & Diversity, Submission & Declaration – please refer to the JD and Person Specification when applying. 

We also want to know what unique qualities you can bring to help us reach our vision for children and families.  

Talent Pool: We're sure you've got what it takes to join our ambitious team. If you're unsuccessful this time around, we'd like to hold your details in case similar jobs come up that you might be better suited for. But feel free to let us know if you'd rather we didn't do that. 

If you need support with your application, please contact our Recruitment Partner

We'll be happy to give you any support you require. 

Want to know more about Spring and Oscars? 

Check out our socials on Linkedin, Facebook or Youtube. 

Job Description

See below for further information about working with us:

Employee Reward Booklet

Spring Early Years Career Pathway