School Secretaries/Admins/Bursars - come hither

[TheIncidentalGoat]

Is there a support thread for us admin types anywhere? If not come say hello and share your new term woes (or otherwise)

I'm school sec in an inner city primary, with all that entails. We've been back week and already I'm approaching the end of my rope.

[OutDamnSpot]

I've nothing to grumble about at the moment but we're only a week in so marking my place for when I need to vent.

[TheIncidentalGoat]

Hello, glad things are all good at the moment. I do love the job despite the trials and tribulations.

[Notsoskinnyminny]

I'm office manager in a large primary. Love the job just wish the head would see sense and appoint someone else as me and half an admin isn't enough especially when she's still not found her gumption or developed the ability to remember 99 messages after a year and moans about the constant interruptions, she's worked in schools before so not sure what she expected

[TheIncidentalGoat]

Hello notsoskinny we have a member of staff like that in our office. Part of the reason for my initial grumpiness this term. Things just got better...not...Ofsted rang Wed, turned up today. Glory be!

[sinclair]

Signing in, great idea to start the thread. In an PRU in London, very small but very challenging students. New to the job but love it, and have signed up for CSBM in the hope of moving on to a bigger school next year (and more money - I am v low waged at present!)

There are always primary jobs coming up here - initially I have gone secondary as I'm not a natural with the tinies...anyone worked in both and care to have a view?

Ten days in here and awaiting Ofsted - thank G it's Friday...

[Notsoskinnyminny]

IG hope the ofsted went ok - at least its out of the way. We were expecting them all last year (they did 4 nearby schools in June/July but never got to us). We'll all blow a huge sigh of relief because the head's driving us mad about what to do when they come

sinclair I did 5 years in a secondary as Head's PA/Clerk to Govs and moved to one of the feeder primaries a couple of years ago. We're only KS2 so no tinies and its lovely not to be effed and jeffed at by kids and their parents as I was mostly involved with the naughty ones who ended up at the PRU . Most primary heads don't realise how much admin work there now is and with hindsight I should've stayed where I was as a secondary's nowhere near as busy, probably because there's a much bigger admin team.

I missed a CSBM intake so I'm nearly at the end of the foundation course. If I stay in education I'm hoping to move to the next authority because they pay £7-10k more for almost identical posts provided you've done the CSBM but only in primaries besides I couldn't manage the budget in a secondary - I know my limitations

[sinclair]

That is really interesting NotSo, thank you. I hadn't thought about confining myself to Juniors - it is the nursery/infants that I can't see myself in. I did work exp in a local secondary and there was a member of staff for each area - admissions, attendance, comms etc - it didn't seem as frantic and many balls in the air as primary.

I do like the teens, I like the exams admin too, could definitely do without the effing and jeffing, tho that is mostly the parents. I need to keep an eye on the salaries in all sectors I think.

[TheIncidentalGoat]

Hello sinclair.

The official line is 'it went well', you know the confidentiality issue. [Smile]

I've not worked in secondary. I like the variation in primary though could do without the vomit. Why do they get to the office door and then vomit? It's amazing how they time it.

It's a rare head who realises how much admin stuff there is I think. Having lost a couple of days this week to Ofsted I'm panicking that I'll not get all my nursery children on by census day.

[GiveMeCoughfee]

Hello all
School admin here - please mark me in
Glad to see there are a few of us enjoying the thrills and spills of life in the school office.
Out of interest - how big are your respective schools and how many admin/reception/secretarial/bursar/business managers do you have and how full time are they?
I am probably not alone thinking my school is under resourced but would be interested in comparing notes. Who does what in your school? How involved are your heads? What would be your one 'life saver' tip for the office??

[TheIncidentalGoat]

Hello GiveMeCoughfee. I'm in primary, about 350 pupils. We have a bursar, admin (both of us 25 hours) and a full time receptionist. All of us term time only though we usually end up working a few days over the summer. I think we're about right staffing wise (or would be if my reception colleague pulled her finger out) I'm the admin and do all the sims stuff, cash based income, dinner money etc, plus I have responsibility for attendance, assessment data, census, single central record and the more complex typing jobs.

We pretty much run ourselves and the head only comes in when she needs something doing or needs someone to blame

Lifesaver tip for the office. I'd have to think but as far as essential skills I'd say multitasking and a thick skin.

[Notsoskinnyminny]

We've got 280 pupils and there's me FT all year and an admin 20hrs term time but the head gives her unlimited O/T. She does the dinner money and should do most of the typing but she's not a typist so more difficult docs come to me, she should cover reception but says she doesn't know when anyone's there as she sits with her back to it even though visitors have to be buzzed in

Me I do all aspects of finance, SIMS, data, census, SCR, HR including payroll returns, and deal with anything that happens between 1-5pm because I'm on my lonesome and produce war and peace the 24+ page newsletter 8 times a year that, based on the no of phone calls asking for info, no-one reads.

Our head's lovely but a dinosaur and expects all emails printed off and handwrites replies and thinks everyone should work the way she does which is the way the previous head did but he retired 20 yrs ago

Lifesaver tips - have a good memory, be able to think on your feet, don't waste time writing a to-do list because the first item will still need doing tomorrow and get to know the parents espcially the horrible ones

IG I'm so of your staffing levels

[Fairyliz]

Hi all I'm Business Manager in a academy primary school of 300 pupil. My job involved everything from vomit to controlling budgets. I work 35 hours term time and have admin assistant for 22 hours per week. In reality we both work a lot more hours than we are paid and come in lots of days during the hols.
Main probs too much work and now as an academy no back up from LA, so everything that isn't to do with teaching is down to me.

[auntpetunia]

Hello I'm admin in an inner city primary. There is me and a bursar we work 34 hours a week term time plus 10 days, so we do all inset days and 5 others.

We have 385 on role at present including nursery. We split everything so I do registers/attendance (though they've just appointed a TA to be pastoral support so I'll loose all the hassle of the PAs and their parents....hurray). I do dinners, school uniform, trips, school website and twitter, write the weekly newsletter, census updates and end of year procedures and exam results.

[TheIncidentalGoat]

Hello fairyliz. There's mutterings about academy here. Im not sure thd head and governors are totally aware of the work involved.

Auntpetunia, our roles sound very similar. :-)

[Virginiaplain1]

Hi all. I'm a School Business Manager in a primary academy, single form entry. I work full time, all year with finance officer/school secretary doing 25 hours a week, term time - although we both do loads more than our contracted hours. The move to academy status has really increased our workload and we are in desperate need of someone else in the office.
While I do most things in school, I definitely don't do vomit or blocked toilets!

[auntpetunia]

goat there's lots of us about. Do everything bar the finance and hr. Currently trying to get all the new data collection sheet info onto sims as well as all the new nursery kids before census day.

[Theysawus]

I work in a secondary of approx 2000 as a Faculty Admin - large part of the job is organizing trips. I have no idea how many admin staff there are - too many to count! But almost all are part-time.

[StretchySusie]

Hello, SBM here in a medium sized primary school. There's me, and two admin assistants in the office. One does 28 hours and the other does 16.

Quick question, what are your schools doing about ensuring you get as many children who qualify for pupil premium to eat a school meal on census day? I'm planning a 'fish and chip Thursday' menu. I know its not the healthiest but it's certainly the most popular meal of the week.

[JimmyCorkhill]

I want your jobs! I am an ex (?) teacher. Left to have DC and don't really want to go back...but love the vibe of working in a school. I am pretty organised and get that your day is constant interruptions plus all the wet/sticky/pukey bits What qualifications did you need to get your jobs? What is the difference between a typing job and a complex typing job? I'm typing this with 2 fingers! Would my past as a teacher be a bonus to the job or is it completely irrelevant?

[auntpetunia]

susie I hadn't even thought about it!! Our fsm is just under 49% of our kids and I have worked on getting the real fsm details for all the infants onto sims L'pool council runs a v v complex fsm notification system, new list each week. Which often isn't right. I know most of our families so hope I've caught anyone who hasnt signed up yet. Got one eal family to take the 1 stop shop this week to get sorted. Our most popular meal is curry.... Might ask for a curry day!

[ICantFindAFreeNickName]

Sorry can I just check the relevance of the pupil premium children having a dinner on census day ? Does it affect funding or something ?

btw I'm in a city primary - about 385 children on roll (not that they ever stop coming or going long enough for me to remember the exact total).

[Notsoskinnyminny]

On census day I add up all the FSMs and deduct anyone who's absent cos that's what the Head tells me to do but I'm on SIMS training on Thursday so I'll ask if it affects the budget or if they just want to know the take up figure.

Jimmy it depends on the school. Ours has lots of wordy policies, the staff handbook's over an inch thick and the prospectus isn't much thinner . Whilst my admin 2 fingered typist can cope with basic emails she takes forever to do anything else and she hasn't got a clue when it comes to formatting a policy typed by a 2 fingered teacher I'd suggest looking at admin jobs in secondary schools. The departmental admins at the one I worked in did purely admin stuff as all letters had to go through the central office --they also had a much cushier life based on the fact that they all took their break and lunch at the same time whereas the central office girls worked through theirs because it was always busy.

Would you not consider being a TA? We've got 2 who are qualified teachers but like you don't want the responsibility of a class. One of them covers for a part-time teacher on her day off and they both do some PPA cover we have part-time specialists who do whole school PE, science and MFL which are timetabled to fit in with PPA/NQT time and short term absences.

My turn for a question - how easy is it to switch from being a LA managed school to a cheque book school? Our govs are cheesed off with the service from the LA's finance team and have asked me to consider it. I'm currently using FMS if that makes a difference. Basically will I have much more to do??

[TheIncidentalGoat]

Ooo lots of new people. Hello

I finally got all the nursery on SIMs today, just waiting on a couple of ctfs for other newbies and did an early census dry run. Not too much to tidy up. Re the fsms I'm not sure it matters if they eat or not on census day, you get the pupil premium anyway, just make sure the pupil premium box is ticked. Have you downloaded the latests dfe pp file? It's important that the ufsms eat though as you'll get your extra funding over the 87% it most of them eat. On the census this time you have to tick which individual ufsm children have eaten.

Yy, complex typing jobs are policies and mail merges not the two finger typist letters.

We switched to cheque book last year notsoskinny and it wasn't too bad at all. Bursar much prefers it as she has better control overall. Much easier to reconcile but just have to take more care about cash flow.

[JimmyCorkhill]

Thank you Notsoskinnyminny and TheIncidentalGoat. Might learn to type whilst I am a SAHM. I don't even know what a mail merge is. This thread is fascinating!

I don't fancy being a TA, too similar to being the teacher, although a lot of the new mum teachers at my old school have become HLTAs. I actually enjoyed doing the admin parts of my teaching job plus I have vowed to get a job where I can wear nice clothes and high heels!

[auntpetunia]

Good idea. Take a look at an admin course in your local college. There are specific school admin courses but you normally need to be working in a school to access them. Whereabouts are you based? Your name makes me think local to me!