School Secretary

Job Description

Job Title- School Secretary

Line Manager- Bursar

Contract Type- Term Time Plus 12 days

Hours- 8.15am to 4.15pm with one hour for lunch

The School

Dair House is an independent, preparatory, co-educational, day school for children from rising 3s to 11 years old. It is the smallest independent school in the area with 129 pupils currently. We take great pride in providing a caring and supportive educational environment for our children and an extremely courteous welcome for all parents.

Dair House was founded in Farnham Common in 1932 and is a not-for-profit educational charitable trust with a non-paid board of governors.

The Administrative Team

The Administrative team consists of the Bursar, the Admissions and Marketing Officer and the School Secretary. This is a tight knit team which supports each other to ensure the smooth running of the School meaning that at busy times the whole administrative team will be expected to offer help and support.

The Job

Administrative Responsibilities

• Provide polite, cheerful first point of contact for visitors
• Provide polite, cheerful first contact for telephone enquiries
• Responsible for sorting and distributing incoming post on a daily basis
• Responsible for franking and mailing outgoing post on a daily basis
• Responsible for checking and following up attendance registers on a daily basis
• Responsible for relaying messages to staff re: absence of pupils, changes in collection arrangements of pupils’ Breakfast Club and After School Care Club arrangements
• Responsible for typing letters for staff and sending to parents
• To use School information management system- Schoolbase
• To use Parent Portal and Parentmail
• Manage all entries in the diary
• Update and order Homework Diaries
• Responsible for organising school photographs and processing orders
• Ensure the reception, office areas and notice boards are always well organised and tidy
• Manage the Visitors’ book and Visitors’ passes
• Manage the ordering and collation/distribution of new resources
• Responsible for ensuring the stationery and paper resources are stored correctly and levels of both are always appropriate
• Responsible for booking of transport for educational visits, swimming and other School related events
• Liaise with Clubs Co-ordinator and Head re: extra-curricular clubs programme to produce termly clubs booking forms and final lists
• Liaise with the Bursar to provide input for the fee invoices.
• Liaise with MF re: Breakfast and After School clubs
• Liaise with Bursar to confirm invoices to parents for Breakfast and After School Clubs
• Manage the allocation of tickets and seating plans for school events in the hall
• Provide initial First Aid
• Manage the up-keep of the Medical Room

      Personal skills

• To maintain confidentiality at all times
• Must be extremely polite and courteous at all times

• Must have an excellent telephone manner at all times
• Must maintain extremely high personal standards regarding  spelling, punctuation, grammar and presentation of all school written communication, from emails and texts, to addressing of envelopes and layout of letters
• Must have an excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office- Word, Publisher, Excel and Powerpoint
• Should show a good knowledge of Facebook, Twitter and other social media
• Must show a willingness to be involved in the wider life of the School
• Must follow the School dress code
• Must be a team player who is adaptable and always offers to help at busy times with any area
• Must have a very good sense of humour
• Must have a positive ‘can do’ attitude

We are looking for someone who will rapidly develop a passion, pride and love for every aspect of Dair House School. The successful candidate will carry out duties as the Head or Governors may from time to time determine fall within the remit of the post; and to attend courses as required.

All Dair House School staff have responsibility for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of our children.

For further details and an application pack please contact admissions@dairhouse.co.uk.  Completed application forms should be sent to the Headmaster at head@dairhouse.co.uk