School Office Manager
Job Description
Post Title: School Office Manager
Salary: £35,000 – £39,000 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: September/October 2024
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 by 29 August 2024 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 This ad may be withdrawn if a suitable candidate is identified.
As the School Office Manager your responsibility is:
- To lead administrative support for the school.
- To oversee the front office function of the school.
- To line manage the finance assistant/receptionist.
- To lead HR and Recruitment functions across the school.
- To support the School Business Manager with finance requirements.
The post holder will be attentive to the requirements of the office:
The school office is integral to the running of a school. Schools are places where children and young adults learn some of the most important lessons in their lives. Teachers equip the pupils with the skills they need to progress and grow into successful, respectable adults. Support staff in the school office provide the backbone and infrastructure for the effective running of a school.
Office staff are expected to undertake jobs that stretch far beyond their original job specification. Roles develop with time and you will be expected to be flexible, proactive and able to work under pressure and juggle many projects. A sense of calm and a sense of humour will go a long way to working through tricky moments in the job. The office team needs to have an ‘all hands-on deck’ mentality, mucking in on every aspect of school life. The children’s learning should be at the centre of every decision you make.
Main Responsibilities and Duties
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.
- To act as the lead Fire Marshall – liaising with the headteacher and School Business Manager on fire safety protocols and evacuations.
- 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 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 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 CRB 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:
For further information, please visit www.gesherschool.com
