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.

Arrrrggghhhh fecking parents,!! Apparently we didn't do anything to let 1 particular mum know that she needed to apply for a Reception place for her youngest and a year 7 place for her oldest! ! "How was I supposed to know it wasn't automatic? " said with lots of attitude and disgust that we couldn't do anything for her and told her to go to the local one stop shop. Apparently we didn't put anything on any news letters, we didn't hold a session after school when we helped parents fill in the on line form. Her parting shot was well he better get his place or I'll just bring him in September and you'll have to teach him.........

give me strength or

ap I've had that, even though we hand out the admissions booklet and letters from both secondary schools about their open evenings there's always a couple who forget to apply.

I totally get your frustration and maintain that we should offer to breastfeed their children from birth to save them the bother.

Yes, just hand them over at birth and we'll do it all. Jesus wept.

5 weeks 2 days.

Love it really.

World book day caos is over an I am knackered! time now to knuckle down and ensure all the ks 2 sats information is entered in time, we've got a girl to disbar and 2 working below standard. And then joy of joy we are into reception place fighting time. How long till easter?

Soddin admin off sick again, so her predecessor has come out of retirement and cleared all the outstanding work that had been shoved in a drawer.

Thankfully we're only KS2 so I don't have admission appeals but we had a lot of disappointed parents because the local secondary was oversubscribed due to all the new houses the council's allowed on greenbelt land so anyone more than 1.2 miles away now has to travel 3-4 miles to a school that's just gone into special measures and because the siblings rule no longer applies some parents could be dropping off at 3 different schools.

Just want to come here and Ssscccrrrrreeeeeeeeam!

Got an interview for a bursar position in a primary school. Told Wii have 3 tasks,a letter , a financial and a intray exercise to show that I can prioritise . Any tips very gratefully received ,returning to work and feeling out of the loop. Thanks in advance

What experience do you have? Do you know how to use FMS /SIMS? The letter should be fine, possibly just a list of instructions to be made into a letter, so yr 5 trip on, need packed lunch leaving at and due back cost etc.

Thanks auntpetunia, I have a finance background , but not admin and I have never used school systems. Surprised I got an interview !! Maybe they have confused me with another applicant. Any thoughts on financial exercise ?

Hooray for the Easter holidays...

Mccormack - I would think they will give you a cost centre summary (a list of the specific budgets, how much is allocated for each budget, and how much is left to spend). That's quite a general finance task. They may ask you to comment on it. You will be looking at things like, whether the utility bills are coming in too high, or whether teachers have spent their curriculum budgets.

Of course, I may be talking rubbish. But I've worked in two schools and we've done the same in each.

Only 3 more days till we break up! ! Enjoy your break everyone else, good luck McCormack

Thank you ladies for advice and support, much appreciated

Is there any software for tracking enquiries, applications... Then up to deposits paid, sessions, invoices, et ?

I don't understand nochocolate what do you need/want to track thst people are enquiring /applying for that they need to pay for?

Shouldn't type and cook...

Tracking prospective parents/students from enquiry to enrolment. When you get loads of calls/emails its hard follow all the prospects (especially when you are working up to three years ahead!)

Anything that could also track sessions (its a nursery - so change through the term) that could help with invoicing also very useful!

nochocolate, do you have Sims? You can use pre-admission groups in Sims - you set up a group for each intake. This won't help you with invoicing though.

You might be better off writing your own programme in access but don't ask me how

We have an abacus...

Well not really but it is very low tech here!

I'd do it in excel, a sheet for each half term with names down the left hand column and a weekly merged heading with cost per session, no of sessions attended, total cost, amount paid, date paid, credit or debit below. You could have a summary sheet at the front of the workbook with name, DOB, and the years the child is due to go to nursery/join reception, parental contact details so you know when to make contact, sibling details might be useful as you'd know the child would be coming - a doddle if you get a quiet afternoon otherwise it'll be on your to do list for ever says she who still hasn't completed her summer list

Right I see what you want, but I can't help I do like hazel and make pre admission groups in SIMS. We don't charge for any sessions in nursery as a primary school we can't. We just have an attendance register like the rest of the school with theor sessions expected, morning or afternoon programmed into SIMS

How's everyone getting on? Starting to hit manic now, phonics scores SATs new starters and end of year procedures all to come !

It gets crazier and crazier every year. New intake is a massive amount of work, and people keep changing their mind! Plus there's the recruitment, which the SLT just don't understand. Can we close the advert on Monday and interview on Wednesday? No we blinking well can't!

Added to this, a restructure taking place and one of the admin team going 'off' for the four weeks of term.

It just doesn't bear thinking about. Help!

Sounds like our place hazel only advantage this year has been they advertised before Easter for the teachers and tas they wanted, so at least we've not got that to contend with.

Oh my god got a job interview for next week!!!!

Wow, well done petunia. We're advertising for admin at the moment and we've had an overwhelming response, many of them brilliant applications. So getting shortlisted is fantastic, whatever the outcome.

What sort of job is it?