Office Administrator - Ann Pettengell : Job Details

This is a fabulous opportunity to work for an award-winning educational establishment, with an outstanding reputation. The Office Administrator will provide essential support across the Operations department as well as other areas of the school as required.

The role will suit candidates with high calibre organisational and administrative skills, who have excellent attention to detail, good communication skills, are fast learners, adaptable and flexible to work on multiple tasks, accurate in recording information, are comfortable multi-tasking and are as equally at home doing data entry as undertaking more complex planning and scheduling tasks or communicating with parents.

PLEASE NOTE: The Office Administrator works approximately 34 weeks per year (term time), plus an additional 8 weeks outside of term time (according to the needs of the school and as directed by the Director of Operations). The normal working hours for the role will be 8:30am-4:30pm Monday to Friday, though you may be called on to cover for absent colleagues outside of these times (up to 6:00pm). As with all staff, there might be an occasional need for Saturday morning working, or evening working for parents’ evening, plays or concerts.

Specific Responsibilities

The successful candidate will be open to adjusting their duties accordingly and happy to be deployed to whichever section of the school requires support. Below are examples of some of the duties which are currently included:

Information Systems: Assisting the Information Systems Team Leader in the maintenance of a range of information systems, including academic progress tracking, administering the termly reporting cycle, data entry, assisting in the annual year-end rollover process, administering user accounts and content updates on the school’s portal.

Website Administration: Monitoring the calendar of events to schedule the publishing of school notices and regular reminders to parents; Liaising with staff to gather content for entries; Uploading content to the Portal; Administering the document management system for publishing policies, forms and other documents on the Portal; Administering the filtering system to allocate content to the correct families; Monitoring reply forms and sending information to the event organiser; Setting up and sending of official school emails by mail merge; Administering the system for sending SMS alerts

After School Care and Activities: Administrative support for co-curricular clubs and activities both in the initial sign-up process for pupils and parents and processing the changes to membership during the term; Auditing termly charges for clubs; assisting the Facilities Manager in the maintenance of minibus transport lists, etc.

Scheduling and Logistics: Support to the Administration Manager in setting up for events, setting up and tracking reply forms

Admissions: Support to the Admissions department including data entry, data validation for new starters, assisting in the setup for tours and open mornings

HR: Support to the HR Officer with data entry for recruitment checks and updating the training log, sending reference requests, filing policy updates, setting up hardcopy recruitment files, etc.

General School Administration: This will include a wide variety of tasks such as the allocation of lockers to pupils at the start of each academic year, the termly production and printing of pupil timetables, setting up schooling report templates and covering for absent staff at reception

Person Specification

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate some or all of the following:

• Experience in a relevant, similar position, preferably within an education setting or the ability to demonstrate the required competencies to fulfil the duties of the role as outlined
• Very strong organisational skills: exceptional ability to manage multiple tasks and prioritise
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with an ability to communicate effectively with a range of stakeholders including staff and parents
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy, with high numeracy and literacy skills
• Excellent data entry and record-keeping skills
• Strong IT skills, in particular proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook) and familiarity with databases such as school management software systems or the willingness to acquire them with the support of the school
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to identify issues and propose effective solutions
• The ability to learn quickly and a willingness to adapt, be flexible and happy to be deployed across the school
• A capacity to work in a team in a collaborative approach, working with colleagues and contributing to a positive team environment
• Proactive and able to work efficiently and independently with minimal supervision
• Strong customer-service skills, demonstrating a friendly and approachable manner with a strong focus on providing an excellent standard of service
• A commitment to the school’s educational ethos and aims
• The willingness to undertake any training funded by the school
• A commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of both colleagues and pupils

To ApplyPlease send a covering letter together with a copy of your CV in MS Word