School Finance Officer - how stressful?

[Toastandmarmite999]

I'm considering applying for a Finance Officer job that I've just seen in a relatively small secondary school.
I have plenty of experience with Finance in a corporate setting but just wondering how stressful this job is?

Any School Finance Officers out there willing to share your experiences? 😊

It’s stressful!

I’ve been in the role for around 7 years and also have a corporate Finance background in the city.

To be fair my role is a bit more involved, I heavily support the Finance Manager and also have an HR and Facility Hire side to my job and I also work in a large secondary.

It’s full on, non stop and you need to be able to juggle and then juggle some more. School budgets have been cut to the rafters so it’s a constant headache.

However, I work in a school with a very supportive Head, a lovely community ethos, I love my colleagues and the students and that makes it worthwhile for me.

I’m head of finance for a MAT. I’m ACA and moved into education as a finance officer in a school after a long career break when my kids were small.
honestly, I wouldn’t recommend working in education. Budgets are extremely tight so I end up working very long hours, but for me the worst thing about the job is the lack of buy-in/engagement from senior staff. CEOs are usually former HTs who have very limited understanding of or respect for finance so we’re constantly firefighting/clearing up their mess/battling with education leaders about why they can’t buy Prosecco for all their staff on the school credit card. It’s all very frustrating and if I wasn’t so close to retirement I’d be looking to move.

I don’t find it that stressful! I imagine it depends on how big a team you’re in. I’m an assistant school business manager- so I support HR and finance. The HR I mostly do alone, but Finance I work with a finance officer and a finance manager, and we’re a good team. It’s a school of 1,300 pupils. Budgets are tight, but the work is similar to any business - invoices, pay runs. TBH, I don’t really help with budgeting, though I’d like to - that’s the school business manager’s remit and she doesn’t want help. So I’d check the job description - at my school the finance officer is a fairly junior stress-free role. I enjoy working with the students and helping to plan finances for trips.

I think it depends on what level the title Finance Officer sit at for this particular school. As you can see from previous replies, it varies by school.

In my school, large secondary (2300 students), my job title is finance officer and not really stressful, it's mostly finance based admin. I do invoices, reconciliations, trips, pupil premium, payroll in conjunction with HR, parent queries etc. I did not have a finance background but have always enjoyed numbers.

Above me sits the finance manager who is a qualified or part qualified accountant, then above them sits the CFO. I'd say the finance manager role isn't too stressful apart from at audit time, they produce the monthly budget reports for departments, deal with pensions, HMRC submissions and VAT returns amongst other things. For their qualifications they would almost definitely get paid more out of education but for some the option of term time working and not too stressful works well if they have primary aged kids.

The CFO role is stressful and underpaid for the hours they do and the stress. They have overall responsibility for the budget and forward planning. Constantly trying to pluck money a non existent magic money tree. Lots of meetings with the head, SLT, governors, trustees, various committees, many of which are in the evenings. Trying to explain things to non finance people who just want 'the best for the students' whilst not totally grasping where funding comes from and the limits that it has.

If I was more qualified than I am, in my school I would happily do the finance manager role but wouldn't touch the CFO role with a bargepole.

The Chief Financial Officer at my local special school is £60,000-£82,000 salary. If I’m honest, I would expect some stress for that! It’s not underpaid plus a very decent pension. Finance Officer doesn’t have the same responsibility and obviously less money. These are usually term time too. So many women like these jobs.