Into the Kitchen at Highshore School | Harrison Catering

Two special needs students at Highshore School are learning about the catering industry through work experience offered by Harrison Catering Services.

Highshore is a complex mixed needs special secondary school in the London Borough of Southwark with around 106 students ranging in age from 11 to 19 years. The school’s values are independence, self-help and communication. Work experience is a top priority as the school aims to train its students as much as possible and get them into the world of work.

Harrison has provided the catering at Highshore since September 2012. The catering team was already working with the school to offer front of house experience on a rota system, with students helping with serving, rolling and handing out cutlery, and preparing the dining room for service. The company was delighted to increase its commitment by offering to take on two year 12 students, Abdulai and Alan, for two days of work experience each per week.

Cat Rolley, Work Experience Coordinator at Highshore School, said: “It’s great what Harrison is doing because it is on-site for the students, so easy for us to support students and Harrison, yet completely separate from the usual school working environment. Students are learning practical skills that they can use in the future—which is important for special needs students who statistically are much more likely to be not in employment, education or training (NEET) when they leave school. It’s through schemes like the one with Harrison that students can better build up their skill set and access networks to ensure upon leaving school they are in a better position to take up paid work. There is a lot of potential to expand Harrison’s work experience, because once they have trained the students to a certain level in the Highshore kitchen it’s our aim that the students extend their skills in a busier kitchen on another site.”

“It is great working here,” Abdulai said. “It makes me happy working in the kitchen. When Sonia showed me around [during induction] it was helpful to see where everything was.”

Alan is equally positive about the experience. “I feel good working in the kitchen. I enjoy working with the chefs—Clare, Georgie and Nicola. I enjoy serving the pudding to the younger students the most.”

Sonia Redhead, Harrison’s Manager Client Services responsible for Highshore, said: “We’re very pleased with Abdulai and Alan. They’re both keen and eager and making steady progress, so our hope is to have them work up to doing more food preparation in the kitchen, in addition to the front of house duties that they are already doing, and also potentially working more days per week with our catering team so they can develop even further.”