AIBU to ask for help from any school receptionists please??

[whateveryousay]

So I have an interview next week for ‘School Receptionist’ at a large-ish state secondary school.
Part of the interview includes ‘two short, office based tasks’. What might they be please??
Or, to put it another way, what skills should I be polishing this weekend?
I’ll be very grateful for any advice, as I really, really want this job. I’m very familiar with safeguarding, and speaking to children and parents in person, but ‘office skills’ not so much….

I'm not totally sure on receptionist jobs, but my friend just interviewed to be part of an admissions team - they asked her to do some tasks, a draft of an email in reply to a fake parents email and a fake phone call from a parent requesting information. Might be something along those lines!

You will be asked to do an email/telephone or document task on MS Word and probably a basic inputting/manipulation of a simple Excel sheet. Practise tutorials for Excel are good on YouTube. You will be expected to have some knowledge of Central Sevice Database E.g. Sims. You won't be required to have experience of one per se but to know about them and be confident to learn new processes quickly and competently.

Not a school, but education setting, we do an email task as well as prioritising task (5 things like a student at the desk, an urgent email, a task from a manager, a task with a long deadline etc).

Not in a school but have seen a prioritisation task and replying to a slightly difficult email on a professional way.

Thank you! So I’m familiar with sims, Excel is probably my worst nightmare out of that lot due to lack of experience. So I’ll start on that 😬 I’m confident I can learn though. Do you think if I just work on creating a simple sheet, and being able to ‘sum’ for eg, would be adequate?

Set yourself up a spreadsheet for your expenditure- so known expenditure and income for a month?

One wll probably be about dealing with a stroppy parent. If they come in ranting and raving how will you respond?
The other might well be about data protection or safeguarding. It is such an important issue in schools. What do you know about the rules of safeguarding? The answer is ALWAYS that is you have any safeguarding concerns then you take them straight to one of the named safeguarding officers. You do not 'interview' anyone or share your concerns with any one else. Safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone who works in the school - not just teachers and TAs.

Date protection is massive. Make sure you know about it.

Have a look at filters and auto filters on excel which allows you to sort data. It's easy but watch some you tube tutorials.

Other ideas - Typing a letter, sending an email, prioritisation, in tray exercise, data entry.

Not reception but work in school.

I’ve only been involved with interviews for Primary Schools but they have included tasks like putting together the school newsletter, report for governors that would include tables using Excel, grammar and spelling check (obviously not allowed to use spellcheck for that task).

As others have said you will be given a priorities task and safeguarding question, and how to deal with an angry parent. Examples of where you have managed a challenging situation

Please ingnore Random Mess that won't be required.....sorry RandomMess . Just do a tutorial on Excel for interview tests on YouTube it will run you through the basics which you can then practise which yes will then probably include the sum function. Good luck....

I agree a prioritisation task is likely.

Probably prioritisation - in which case safeguarding and health and safety come first. But being able to look at date/time etc.
Then prob drafting an email letter to parents on behalf of head. So checking your style is clear but not informal, professional but not unnecessarily formal.
"Yo dudes the non uniform day is next week yay! " not being quite right...

At a similar interview I was given a letter to be sent out to parents on behalf of the HT & asked to amend it before sending. It was mostly grammatical errors, spacing, paragraphs etc.

Watch out for where you put the message re phone call from Headteacher's spouse in the priority list. They love to chuck that one in.

I was a School business manager and we would be looking for basic word competence eg able to type a letter or newsletter, maybe an email, but the main thing would be prioritisation eg 'the phone is ringing, someone is delivering something and wants a signature, an irate parent is standing in front of you, a child has just fallen over and is bleeding - what order would you deal with things?
Excel is useful but most schools use purpose built software packages for financial stuff so you won't need advanced excel skills

@SeasonFinaleEdgar what is the correct answer? 🤔

Just to add. Don't forget to say you would escalate anything you don't know the answer for/wouldn't have the authority for.

For any tricky questions in the interview I'd answer with something along the lines of "I'd refer to the school's policy on ........ (bullying, safeguarding, whatever the particular issue might be) and follow the procedures outlined in the policy". From my experience, most schools are big on policies and expect staff to adhere to what's written in them.
It won't really matter uf you're not familiar with the computer systems currently in place in the office, as long as you display a willingness and eagerness to learn and adapt.
Best of luck in the interview! Come back and let us know how you get on.

I have recently interviewed for a school reception job and I had two tasks to complete as well. The first task was in excel. We were given a list of things that we were to order along with quantity and cost. We had to make an excel sheet listing all the info and put in calculations to add everything up. We had another column working out daily spend, weekly spend, how much we spent on pens each week and how much we spent on workbooks etc. The other task was in word. Someone read out information while we took notes on what they were saying. We then had to write a letter to parents using all of the given information. Good luck, I hope that you do well!

Thank you 🙏 I have spent my morning brushing up on excel 🤪 Interview is Weds. Grateful for the tips!