Any school support staff here for advice please?

[Cheeseandchutney]

Hi, I have an interview this week for Office Manager in a primary school which I desperately want. I'm currently a childminder and now ready to return to my career as my child has started primary school. I have lots of office experience and have run my childminding business for the last 4 years.
The interview involves and "in tray activity" and I'm having trouble finding any info on what this might involve. Can anyone please please help me? I'm trying my best to prepare as much as possible because I really want it, it's perfect for me and fits around my family

Hi OP, I am not support staff but I’m SLT and I have been involved with the recruitment of an office manager at my school.

Our in tray exercise involved giving a list of tasks / situations that needed to be prioritised, the candidates also had to identify who needed to be informed of what. We had situations like - a phone call from a parent with a safeguarding concern about a pupil, parent demanding to speak to HT instantly, Deputy Head requesting up to date Pupil Premium figures etc. Anything remotely safeguarding goes to the top of the list and should be immediately referred to the safeguarding lead.

Good luck with your interview! Office managers are such an important part of the team.

Thank you so much for your help, I'm so nervous!

@Useruseruserusee could you also please help me with some questions I might be asked during the interview?

I can't remember the name of the style of interview I had but it's when all candidates are asked the same questions and the interviewer gives you a score based on your answer.
They didn't ask follow up questions so it's important to make sure you say the things you want them to know in your answers if possible.
If going to work in a school I would expect questions around safeguarding, professional boundaries.
The school will use some kind of database (maybe SIMS) so an awareness of that might be useful - you quickly pick it up when using it.

Hi @Cheeseandchutney, as housecoat said you will be asked about safeguarding. You may also be asked about how you would deal with a difficult parent and how you would manage other staff (if there is also a receptionist at the school).

I gave them an Excel task to do that I thought was pretty straightforward and one of the candidates just walked out 😬

@JanetandJohn500 no way?! They must have known they would need to use excel? What was the task out of interest? I'm quite confident with excel, word, email etc and do a Mail merge no problem.

I work in secondary in finance so a different role to you but a few tips.

Safeguarding is the absolute definite that will come up so make sure you know your stuff, the first question I was asked was, In a school who is responsible for Safeguarding? The answer is everyone, not the DSL, read the school website to get a feel for the ethos of the school and refer to it.

Prepare to demonstrate that you are flexible and calm, I've worked in finance my whole career but transferring to doing that in a school is hard, you need to be prepared to be interrupted endlessly by pupils, staff and parents. So it's important that you can prioritise and not get flustered. What I plan to do in a day rarely happens I am by nature an extremely organised person and that has helped me no end.

Good luck.