School business manager

[Beansprout30]

I’m a finance assistant currently at a secondary school and a job has come up for School Business Manager in a local primary. Anyone out there currently in this role? Do you work term time only and how many hours a week are you paid for, do you often have to work extra?

I want to apply as I think it would be a great next step up career wise, I still have very small children though so don’t want to take on anything too demanding hours wise…

It's 37 hours a week and not term time only for me.
It's a very large primary though.

Our SBM gets normal holidays but takes them in school holiday times. Same with his FA.

So he works some holidays, but not all

I’m an Office Manager in a primary (filling the SBM function)
I’m paid for 35hrs a week, term time plus two weeks (40 weeks a year) but actually work 40-45hrs a week for about 42 weeks a year. I really enjoy the job, you have to be able to turn your hand to a lot of different things, it’s really varied, but it’s tough going sometimes. The last 21 months have been horrendous.

It's a very full on job for someone with small children. Usually the expectation would be that you study for the CSBM alongside working which also ups the workload. You will spend your days incredibly busy, and the expectation will be that you work long hours at certain points in the year. You have to be jack of all trades, too!

My mum is a school business manager. During term time she works 8-5. Standard 4 weeks AL.

During school holidays she needs to work 20 hours a week but in reality that equates to 2 and a bit days in the holidays and she is able to work, for instance 40 hours one week of the holidays in order to have the next week of the holidays off.

I think the role can vary from one school to another, so it is worth looking around for the right terms and conditions to suit your needs.

I was a SBM in a primary with 300 pupils. I was paid 35 hours a week for 42 weeks a year but generally averaged about 45 hours for about 45 weeks. No overtime paid, there’s no money in the budget for that!

You are responsible for everything that’s not teaching and learning so effectively running a business. You need to know about finance, HR, admin, IT, property matters and understand the full curriculum alongside supporting 300 children and their parents!

I personally would say it’s too much for someone with small children.

My youngest was almost 6 when I started the role (so in full time school). Not sure what you mean by young children? Fairyliz has the hours right, no budget for overtime and there’s no one in the school better placed to know how little money there is! Just this morning I have had to do 30 minute gate duty, pull attendance figures for an SEN meeting, prepare paperwork for an SEN Governor learning walk, deal with TA overtime variances, and sort out my questions for the cleaning contract tender on Wednesday (found out about it this morning) I’ve cleared a blocked printer, cleared away the Breakfast Club trolley because we still haven’t managed to recruit a supervisor to that post and sent 15 emails. And I’ve been in work for 2hours.

Thanks for the replies. So the advert says 30 hours per week, term time only, but I am aware the role is probably more hours than stated and the job will just need to get done!

Can I ask what background any of you Business managers have? I think I can tick most of the job description and person spec, it’s just more the year end accounts stuff which I’ve not got experience in yet

My youngest starts school this September so ideally I wanted to hold out until she’s in but I don’t expect another role to come up this close to home again so soon

I’ve been studying in the evenings for the last two years also so doing the CSBM could just follow on from my current studies

The same as Fairyliz, I'm a BM in a Primary School with 400 kids and 53 staff. I'm paid 32hrs term time plus 2 weeks, but I do anything between 40-57hr weeks d work every holiday on/off. You have to support the office team if off/pick work up and support SLT so work delegated down to you. I'm responsible for HE, payroll, Census, Site Manager, part time Office Team, ordering, budgets/finance, key holder, Lettings, Data Protection, Single Central Record, H&S... it's never ending. Great variety, but you are at everyone's "beck & call" and get pulled to clear up sick, deal with photocopier jams, find missing kids, take kids to classes etc. I'm based in the main office so it's impossible to concentrate and everything takes longer than if I had my own office. It's a stressful job poorly paid. I've accepted a new job, doubling my salary, full time as figured I might as well get paid for the hours but it's 3 days from home/2 in the office doing procurement which I did before.
Hope this helps.