School Business Manager role...

[ineedanewjobplease]

I have an informal meeting at a school tomorrow regarding the above available post, and just wondering if anyone may be able to think of any questions I should be asking that I may not have thought of?

I've no idea if I'm even qualified for it (educated to degree level but have worked in retail for a long time) but I'm trying to put myself out there! Not entirely sure what I should be asking as I've never really been in that environment.

It's a PRU and so the meeting is recommended because of the nature of the school.

Thanks in advance :)

The business managers I know have really full on roles - you'll be responsible for submitting budgets etc. You should find out if there are any HR type tasks in the job description. One school I work at the business manager oversees almost everything!

Do you have a really good job spec for what they are expecting?

I've dealt with a school business manager who was one of my work contacts. He seemed to have a 'caretaker plus' function, overseeing contractors, managing caretakers and cleaners, basically undertaking or sourcing everything to do with keeping the fabric of the building and the grounds running.

But I don't know if people with this job title all do the same type of work, it does seem like it could vary.

I assist the school business manager, it's an extremely busy and demanding role.

Trying to manage school budgets at the moment is tough, reporting to governors, the role encompasses so much, you will need to be calm have great excel skills will need to pick up FMS if you've never worked in a school before.

The other side of working in a school is you are interrupted, teachers and students,constantly and it can be very hard to get things done.

Check if it is a 52 week a year role too as many Business Managers don't do term time as they need to be in the office for month end etc

look here This site might give you some pointers. I'd definitely be asking about relevant qualifications and training opportunities. As school budgets are becoming ever tighter and more difficult to balance, the sbm has a very important role - ours has to prepare a budget sheet for governors every term and be prepared to answer questions about it. They also have a role with some hr type tasks.

You've all got me thinking I'm not going to be cut out for this! Which is no bad thing as it's what I've been thinking myself 😬 wondering I should just cancel the meeting now..

I was a SBM for many years - what were you expecting it to be like? I've just got to go out but you can DM me or I'll answer on here later.

Don’t cancel the meeting! Maybe it’s not for you but you’ll probably find out something interesting even so. Might lead you on to something else. Might be different than you expect and actually something you think you could handle.

Don't cancel still go, I worked in Finance prior to this but never a school and I still got the job, you just never know.

My question would be why a school business manager in a school setting, why not a business manager anywhere else.
You have some of the skills if you have worked in retail.
You will potentially deal with school admissions, staffing and recruitment, room letting, head's letters.

I'd go for the interview.

Budget-huge job! Especially with deficit budgets.

The school business managers I know have accountancy backgrounds and are not involved with heads letters or room bookings which would be dealt with by the secretary or office staff. However it carri enormous responsibility.

I considered applying for a similar role but decided against. On paper it was huge - basically responsible for everything bar the education- HR, facilities management, payroll, as well as the finance stuff you would expect.

The SBM at my school is my line manager. She is an ex lawyer (got a more child friendly job when she had DC). She does all the schools finance, budgets, HR, maintenance and property stuff, manages the office staff, advises the headteacher on a range of issues and helps deal with parent issues. I wouldn't want her job tbh! I did consider aiming towards it one day but my finance skills just aren't there.

Facilities! That's the word I was looking for instead of maintenance and property stuff.

I think the facilities side of the role would vary from school to school, we have a site manager and site team who deal with everything like that and our Head of Resources deals with HR the SBM purely focuses on her role.

I've had a really good look at the job spec there and I'm really not qualified!

Still worth going to the meeting do you think? Or just email my apologies and cancel?

I'd go, even if just for experience. I'd ask the question about how they plan and sign off their budget, with uncertain pupil numbers, and if they put aside sufficient reserves to accommodate any sudden surges in pupils. Also what level of scrutiny are their financial affairs subject to - you need to be sure that you aren't left as a convenient scapegoat if things go wrong and the CEO wants to apportion blame.

Also, ask about what they are doing with the pupils, as a small talk type question- PRUs are very different to mainstream schools and each PRU has it's own identity, with approaches differing. I have visited a chain of PRUs in London as part of my day job, and the way they treated the pupil - like actual humans, with high hopes for them and supportive relationships - was so different from the approach taken by DS's mainstream academy. Perhaps because there are fewer pupils, but they really seemed to care about these kids, some of which had been written off as low achievers with an attitude problem.

@AndNoneForGretchenWieners thank you so much for those responses! Really gave me food for thought