Bursar role

[ceeveebee]

Hi. I've seen a bursar role advertised at a local private school. It would be perfect for me from a personal perspective as it's 5 mins walk from my DCs school and our house (vs 1 hr commute to current city centre job) and I think I'd have a good chance as I have 25 years finance and management experience and am now at a senior level dealing with board members etc.
But I'm concerned about a couple of things: 1) the salary - they haven't given any range. Does anyone know roughly what kind of salary this kind of role attracts?
2) the fact that they want references before interview. This is completely alien to me in my corporate world - is it normal for schools to want to reference before interview?

Thanks in advance

Schools typically need references before interview due to safer recruitment guidance. It's a routine part of checking that applicants are suitable for working with children, even for those in admin roles.

Why don't you phone the school and ask for clarification about the salary?

Thanks - I guess I didn't want them to think that money was my only motivation, - but I wouldn't want to waste both our time if it was well below what I would need to pay the bills! I suppose I could call them without giving my name but wondered whether there was any public pay scales or anything that I would be able to look at.

References before interview seems really odd to me -in my world, no-one ever knows if someone is looking for other roles until they resign! I think I'll ask if they can accept previous employer for now.

Private schools don't work to public pay scales so you would need to ask the school.

Our school had just appointed a Bursar and the salary was £35k
I imagine it will be more in the private Ed sector

It's very common , in education, to have references before interview for a few reasons, 1. Safer recruitment

1. Most teachers are appointed on the same day as the interview

I appreciate you aren't applying to teach but their interview processes will likely follow the same pattern for familiarity to them.

1. We often use references to help alongside the application when deciding who to call for interview, saves everyone's time

4 . References answer a lot of questions beforehand and it means there's a greater likelihood of appointing on the day without giving over several days to interviews Time is very tight in education.

Hope this helps and good luck

Thanks Fox.
I did call to discuss - they are willing to wait until after interview to take up current reference - but wouldn't give anything away about salary although the form does ask for current salary so I guess they won't call me if it's miles away (or if they don't want to see me anyway!) - thanks

Ooh and sorry, thanks also Aduck

You are meant to supply references before the interview as part of safer recruitment.

Presumably the bursar role is part of the senior management team, and should have a salary that will pull you away from industry. It depends on the school though. If it is very small, they may not have a lot to give you. I think maybe in the 50s?

The bursar role is usually very broad. You deal with everything day to day that it not teaching, so you manage the maintenance, catering, cleaning and grounds staff. You will deal with all contracts for services and utilities, and keep the building in good order, and would likely be responsible for Health & Safety.

You would have standard holidays of 5 weeks a year, to be taken in the school holidays, and work fairly long days.