Hiring: School Office Manager

Job Description

Post Title: School Office Manager

Salary: £35,500 – £40,500 FTE (depending on experience)

Contract: Term Time plus 3 weeks (flexible)

Hours: 37 hours per week

8am – 4.30pm Monday to Thursdays and

8am – 4pm Fridays (1pm in the winter months)

Reporting to: School Business Manager

Required for: Immediate start (subject to notice period)

Join our dynamic and supportive team at Gesher School as a School Office Manager. In this pivotal role, you will lead the administrative and HR functions that keep our school running smoothly, ensuring the best possible environment for both students and staff. If you are organised, proactive, and passionate about education, we want to hear from you!

Key Responsibilities:

• Administrative Excellence: Manage the school’s MIS, coordinate communications, and ensure seamless daily operations.
• Leadership & Team Management: Oversee front office operations and manage administrative staff.
• HR Expertise: Maintain staff records, oversee recruitment processes, and ensure compliance with safeguarding protocols.
• Finance Support: Assist with invoice management and financial procedures.

Administrative function:

• To proactively manage the school’s primary email inbox.
• To lead the management of staff and pupil information using the school’s MIS (Arbor).
• To produce statistical information/data from the MIS as required, including for student attendance.
• To liaise with parents for planned student absences and updating the MIS, and recording adhoc absences on a daily basis.
• Liaise with the admissions officer to enrol new students and offroll student leavers, and advise the school business manager accordingly.
• To work with the relevant coordinator to register new volunteers and work experience students who meet appropriate safeguarding standards.
• To identify, update and create effective administrative processes as required.
• To send correspondence to parents using the MIS at staff request.
• Support key stakeholders including the Senior Leadership Team, Governors and PTC with adhoc administrative requests.

Front office function:

• Support the finance assistant/receptionist with answering telephone, responding to face to face enquiries, liaising with staff, outside agencies and other visitors.
• Supporting the transition of late arriving students from reception to classroom where necessary.
• Ensuring school security arrangements are always complied with.
• To liaise with parents regarding specific matters as required.
• Co-ordinating arrangements for key stakeholder visits to the school by liaising with relevant staff, governors and trustees.
• To monitor the stock levels and ordering of admin supplies.

Line management responsibilities:

• To conduct line management meetings and appraisals with the finance assistant/receptionist.
• To ensure that the finance assistant/receptionists’ standard of work is delivered to a high level.
• To provide or source training for the finance assistant/receptionist.
• To provide backup in their absence.

HR function:

• To ensure that all staff records are maintained accurately and completely, in line with Ofsted standards.
• To monitor staff attendance, including by tracking return to work reports, and reporting on attendance statistics to the School Business Manager periodically.
• To manage the Single Central Record on CPOMS platform ensuring it is accurate and complete at all times, reporting to the School Business Manager and Safeguarding Governor.
• To ensure that all agency and contractor staff have the relevant documentation in place prior to or on attendance at the school and alert relevant management to any concerns.
• To process staff leavers by ensuring that relevant staff members complete all steps.
• To support the School Business Manager and Headteacher with general HR advice.
• To complete the statutory school census as required.

Recruitment responsibilities:

• To liaise with relevant senior leaders at the start of the recruitment process to ensure that JDs meet school standards and vacancies are advertised appropriately.
• To be the first point of contact for applicants for vacancies.
• To work with the recruiting manager to coordinate interview schedules and assessments and invite candidates for these, ensuring Safer Recruitment guidelines are followed.
• Preparing and issuing staff contracts and recruitment documents to successful candidates and feedback to unsuccessful candidates.
• To carry out all pre-employment checks as per Safer Recruitment guidelines.
• To ensure that relevant staff members complete new starter processes

Finance function:

• To support the finance assistant/receptionist in monitoring the receipt of goods.
• To upload invoices to the finance system for approval.
• To identify missing invoices and chase suppliers for these.

General Responsibilities:

• Be aware of and comply with policies and procedures relating to child protection, health, safety and security, confidentiality and data protection, and report all concerns to the appropriate person.
• Be aware of and support difference and ensure equal opportunities for all.
• Be aware of the school’s responsibilities under the Data Protection Act ensuring that all administrative and financial processes comply with this.
• Treat all information in strict confidence.
• Contribute to the overall ethos/work/aims of the school.
• Appreciate and support the role of other professionals.
• Attend and participate in relevant meetings as required.
• Participate in training and other learning activities and performance development as required.

This list is only an indication of the main tasks required to be performed.  It is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities and may be subject to amendments to take account of changing circumstances.

Gesher School reserves the right that you may be required to undertake such other duties and/or hours of work as may reasonably be required of you commensurate with your grade at your normal place of work.

Skills and experience you will need

• Excellent spoken and written communication skills with all stakeholders.
• Methodical, well-organised and able to work in a fast-paced environment, ensuring that deadlines are met.
• Able to work proactively as part of a team and independently, maintaining a high standard of performance at all times, ensuring all work is accurate and complete.
• Have the ability to analyse information and present this succinctly to relevant stakeholders.
• Have excellent ICT skills
• Have experience in HR and Finance functions (desirable).
• Have experience in an education setting (desirable).
• Be flexible and open to change.

Gesher is committed to Safeguarding all children and all applicants will be asked to make declarations regarding their criminal history prior to interview. The post will be subject to satisfactory safeguarding references and to an enhanced DBS check being received.

Gesher is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applicants of both genders and all race, cultural, language and faith backgrounds. We do not discriminate on grounds of age, disability or sexual orientation.

This position offers fantastic opportunities to develop your skills within an innovative, supportive and collaborative team environment.

We can offer you:

• A Competitive salary
• Monthly well-being events and inset days
• Regular social opportunities
• Paid half day Friday closure in the winter months
• Paid absence on Jewish holidays throughout the year

The role features relevant training, support and supervision alongside paid school holidays, dedicated administrative time and enhanced CPD opportunities. You will be a fully integrated and integral member of the whole school team. See us in action here:

https://vimeo.com/778499364

For further information, please visit www.gesherschool.com

To apply, please complete an application form that can be found here: https://gesherschool.com/about-us/join-our-team

Please, complete and return your application as soon as possible to [email protected]. CVs will not be accepted.

Interviews will be organised on a rolling basis. This ad may be withdrawn if a suitable candidate is identified.

Hiring: SEND Secondary Classroom Teaching Assistant

Required for: ASAP

Hours and Pay: Monday-Friday,  8am-4pm, competitive salary.

We are looking for a highly motivated and dynamic individual for a Secondary Teaching Assistant role at Gesher. As a Teaching Assistant you will work collaboratively with teaching staff to deliver an inclusive, engaging, and nurturing educational experience rooted in our relational ethos and commitment to Project-Based Learning (PBL). You will support the holistic development of the individual pupil both in and outside the classroom, helping them grow as confident, independent learners and active members of the school community.

• Work under the instruction and guidance of teaching staff to implement agreed programmes of work with the individual pupil, in or out of the classroom
• Provide care and support for the pupil, to ensure their safety and well-being
• Encourage enjoyment, enthusiasm, and independence in learning
• Contribute to the development of confident, caring pupils who show a sense of responsibility and pride in themselves and the school
• Assist in the provision of a welcoming, stimulating environment
• Assist in the smooth running of the school
• Have access to a wide range of CPD across the school to support growth and self development which can be applied in classrooms

Gesher School is a unique all-through school providing a specialist, meaningful and functional learning environment for young people with special educational needs. This includes language, communication and social pragmatic difficulties. We have a specialism in autism spectrum challenges (ASC).

Young people are at the heart of Gesher School, where we foster a sense of belonging and community. Our school offers a happy, safe, friendly, and stimulating environment in which young people are supported to learn, interact and have fun. We believe that all young people have the potential to achieve, but that every child is individual and requires a tailored, young person-centred approach to learning.

The Gesher approach is warm, friendly and nurturing. Emotional health and resilience, developing young people’s independence and learning, is at the core of our vision.

At Gesher we provide:

• Opportunities that enable young people to thrive as we want our children to be ambitious about achieving their full potential
• A collaborative learning team around every young person to support each young person’s learning needs and maximise meaningful learning opportunities
• A therapeutic team that works together with families to nurture and support young people’s emotional, social, and academic development
• A partnership with families to improve the lives and life chances of young people with SEND by ensuring that they are healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and experience the wider community

Being part of our learning community, you will be able to use your creativity and shape the way our school provides excellent learning opportunities for our young people.

For further information, please visit www.gesherschool.com.

To apply, please complete an application which can be found here.

Please, complete and return your application to [email protected]. CVs will not be accepted.

Interviews will be organised on a rolling basis. This ad may be withdrawn as a suitable candidate is identified.

Diversity is a core value of Gesher School.  We believe the power of diversity enriches all of us by exposing us to a range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and to discover, design and deliver solutions. As such, we actively encourage people from a variety of backgrounds to apply for roles at our school. 

Gesher School is committed to safeguarding young people and staff. Successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.