Mrs Gosling: 38 years of feeding a school community
When Mrs Gosling looks back on nearly four decades at Stockport Grammar School, her first memory is surprisingly clear.
“I remember the day I started,” she says. “It was in the old kitchen, before this one was built. Everyone was so friendly and I just thought, ‘this is the place for me’.”
At the time, she never expected to stay for 38 years. The plan had been to leave when her children finished school. But life had other ideas. Her son moved abroad, making the school holidays ideal opportunities to visit, and before she knew it, one year became another.
“I stayed, and then stayed, and then stayed,” she laughs.
Over those four decades, Kathy Gosling has fed thousands of pupils. Today, she and her team prepare lunches for around 1,500 pupils and 300 staff every day. While she suspects many will remember the dining hall for its noise and bustle, she sees something more positive behind it all.
“It’s happy noise,” she says. “They’re eating what they like.”
For her, some of the most rewarding moments have come through the conversations she’s shared with pupils over the years. Many stop to chat, ask questions and even request recipes.
One dish stands above all others as the school’s most-loved meal: the famous meatballs.
“The meatballs are definitely the most requested,” she says. “We make our own tomato sauce from scratch and most things here are homemade.”
The school’s devotion to the recipe became something of a mission when their original supplier stopped producing the meatballs they had used for years.
“I actually ended up contacting the manufacturer in The Netherlands to find out who else they supplied as the alternatives were getting the thumbs down from the pupils,” she says. “Luckily we’ve now found a new supplier and everyone loves them again.”
Throughout her career, Kathy has taken particular pride in introducing new ideas and seeing them embraced by pupils and staff alike. She is also passionate about challenging perceptions of school catering.
“People often think of school dinners as turkey twizzlers,” she says. “We’ve never served a twizzler in our lives.”
She believes many people would be surprised by the scale and complexity of the operation running behind the scenes every day.
Deliveries arrive daily to ensure ingredients remain fresh. On a meatball day alone, the kitchen can use around 130kg of pasta. Cakes are baked from scratch, with staff cracking hundreds of eggs by hand each morning.
“If we’re making sponge, four mixes could mean cracking 70 eggs per mix,” she says. “Even hotels don’t work quite like this because they’re cooking to order.
Here, everything has to be ready at exactly the right time.”
“It’s like a military operation really.”
Leading such a large operation requires trust and respect, something Kathy has always tried to earn.
“I never ask anyone to do something that I wouldn’t do myself.”
Behind the scenes, the kitchen has become much more than a workplace. It’s a place where colleagues have shared decades of life together.
“We laugh a lot,” she says. “People talk about their families, their friends and what was on television the night before. That’s just how it is. It’s a good group.”
As she prepares to hand over the reins, Kathy’s advice to her successor is simple.
“Listen first. See what happens and then trust your instincts about what needs to be done. But most of all, enjoy it.”
After all, she knows better than most how quickly time passes.
“You go from term to term and before you know it, the years have flown by.”
And after almost 40 years of devoted service, how would she like the school community to remember her?
“With fondness,” she says. “I think I’m fair. Sometimes I have to be firm, but mostly I’m here to help and guide.”
It is a simple answer, but one that perfectly reflects the values that have defined her career: fairness, kindness, hard work and a genuine care for the people around her.
After approaching 40 years, few could ask for a more fitting legacy.
