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ATTENDANCE AND COVER ADMINISTRATOR

Newcastle upon Tyne Royal Grammar School
To start as soon as possible

THE POSITION

We have an exciting opportunity for someone to join us as an Attendance and Cover Administrator. Reporting to the Senior Deputy Head, this is a critical role in this high-achieving school. The Attendance and Cover Administrator is responsible for managing school attendance, whilst also being accountable for organising staff cover and supervision within the Senior School.

RGS is a vibrant and busy school so you will need to be able to work flexibly and show a good use of initiative. Experience of working in a school is desirable, but not essential.

THE SCHOOL

Thomas Horsley, the original settlor of the Royal Grammar School Newcastle (RGS) pledged his legacy to the School in 1525. Almost 500 years later, RGS continues to flourish as the premier independent school in the North East of England and as one of the country's leading schools, and the Sunday Times’ North East Independent School of the Decade 2020. Most recently, RGS was awarded the Sunday Times’ 2023 North East's Top Independent Secondary School for Academic Performance. We regularly lead all northern schools in national league tables and pride ourselves on academic excellence, a high level of pastoral support, involvement in a wide range of sports and other co-curricular activities, and our commitment to bursaries and partnerships.

RGS has grown substantially in recent years. There are now some 1,340 students, over 260 of whom are in the Junior School. The Sixth Form of 350 students is one of the largest in the independent sector. We became coeducational 20 years ago and girls now comprise 43% of the school.

The school is based in the heart of the city, immediately opposite Jesmond Metro station. The school occupies over 30 acres of land and has state-of-the-art facilities, including five brand new art studios, a new library, a new Sixth Form Centre, a 25m swimming pool, two Sports Halls, a Performing Arts Centre, outdoor football/rugby pitches at Mooracres, an artificial turf pitch for hockey and the former County Cricket Ground.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The following list is not exhaustive but is a guideline as to the main requirements of the role. The Attendance and Cover Administrator must be willing, flexible, and prepared to carry out reasonable tasks not necessarily covered within this job description.

• Working with the school pastoral team to promote good attendance and reduce absence, recognising and acting on persistent absence.
• To manage school registers and liaise with staff to ensure all registers are completed and coded correctly, with no unexplained absences.
• To manage the attendance using iSAMS database and update this with information received from Form Supervisors, including inputting late arrivals and absences.
• To contact parents/guardians when students are absent and record details of these responses.
• To record and file any medical evidence to support authorised absences.
• To provide weekly reports with attendance and punctuality statistics to the pastoral team, identifying and monitoring attendance regularities.
• Support the Senior Deputy Head and the Designated Safeguarding Leave (DSL) to ensure that the school complies with the legal and safeguarding obligation of the School with regards to attendance.
• Keep consistent records compliant with the Department for Education guidelines and for the independent inspectorate.
• To keep an up-to-date knowledge with regards to new regulation developments and disseminate this information as appropriate.
• Oversee the monitoring of the attendance records and ensure they are up to date.
• To liaise with the Database Manager and IT Support regarding maintenance of the iSAMS registration recording system.
• Support the Senior Deputy Head to ensure all aspects of the School’s Attendance Policy are delivered in line with the aims and objectives of the School.
• To manage supervision throughout the Senior School and ensure all duties are covered.
• To manage and organise cover for absent teaching staff in the Senior School.
• To keep records on covers completed by individual staff to ensure that procedures are followed.
• To provide staff with cover information by the start of the day and when emergencies occur.
• To work with HR staff regarding absent staff and cover issues, as well as leave of absence requests.
• Support the Senior Deputy Head to ensure the school meets its statutory legal obligations and targets with regards to school attendance, punctuality and safeguarding.
• Provide occasional cover for absent colleagues in the general office and reception, and provide administrative assistance, as and when required.

QUALIFICATIONS/TRAINING/KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS

Previous experience in a similar role is desirable, but not essential.

We anticipate that the successful candidate will start by working alongside colleagues who understand the systems in use, before being given increasing responsibility for each aspect of the role.

Crucially, the successful candidate will be willing to learn, highly organised and ready to deliver an efficient and effective service.

The Attendance and Cover Administrator should demonstrate the following qualities:

Essential

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• The ability to build strong relationships across all levels of the school.
• Strong organisational and administrative skills with the ability to prioritise and work on own initiative.
• Able to recognise the important of accuracy and has a great attention to detail.
• Excellent time management skills and the ability to prioritise, manage workload and work to tight deadlines.
• Ability to work autonomously and work on own initiative.
• Practical and logical; ability to be efficiently reactive to problems that arise throughout the day.
• A positive proactive and forward-thinking manner.
• Ability to input information and data accurately.
• Ability to adapt to new systems quickly.
• Ability to effectively maintain accurate records.
• Ability to collate information and disseminate as appropriate.
• Ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality at all times.
• Willingness to be an effective team member and contribute to the wider life of school.
• Show an understanding, or willingness to learn the issues associated with working among young people in a school.

Desirable

· Previous experience working in an educational environment.

· Previous experience in an administrative role.

· Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office 365.

· Experience of working with a school MIS (RGS uses iSAMS)

LIVING IN THE NORTH EAST

Whilst the North East is beloved and popular with so many, we know that not everyone will have had first-hand experience of it, so this is a short introduction to a city and region which we love, and believe you will too. Newcastle is a medium-sized city with an historic centre and a vibrant life of its own. There’s culture and arts in the form of the award-winning BALTIC Art Gallery and The Sage, alongside several theatres that attract national touring productions. There’s music from classical to club and we are home to the Royal Northern Sinfonia. There’s also a growing food culture with some fantastic restaurants.

If you like sport then there’s certainly no shortage of top-class entertainment: from Premier League football being played at St James’ Park and EFL at the Stadium of Light to first class cricket at Durham (a mere half hour away), and great rugby at the Falcons, not to mention basketball and even ice hockey, and then there is the annual Great North Run. The North East has also produced some of the country’s finest athletes in track and field and there are clubs aplenty to get involved with, most famously in Gateshead.

The coast and the hills are minutes away from the city centre. By car you can be in the middle of nowhere in 45 minutes, the Scottish Borders is only an hour away and the Lake District an hour and a half. The coast is served by the Metro (our version of the Tube), but some of the country’s best beaches are up the road in Northumberland, less than 40 minutes by car. There’s mountain biking, road cycling, climbing, and endless hill walks in stunning countryside. There are green spaces all over the city too, with plenty of parks for children and dogs alike to run around.

There are three local teaching hospitals, two universities in the city with another three close by. Some pioneering medical work goes on at the RVI, Great North Children's Hospital and the Freeman Hospital.

History abounds with more castles than you could count and sites of interest for almost every period o f English (and border) history. Add that to a proud, independently minded and very friendly local population and we have most things you could want.

There are excellent primary schools in the region and city as well as some good secondary schools too, but staff do get a discount at the RGS. There are also a number of good competitor independent schools as well.

MAIN TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Start date: as soon as possible pending completion of the successful candidate’s pre-employment and safeguarding checks.
• The post will report to the Senior Deputy Head and work with colleagues from across the school.
• This is a permanent role.
• This is a term time only role plus 4 additional staff training days spread throughout the year. Payment for the additional 4 days has been factored into the offered salary. Details of the additional staff days will be shared with the successful candidate.
• The successful candidate will also be expected to work the compulsory safeguarding training day at the start of each academic year (date varies each year). Payment for this day has been incorporated into the annual salary for this role.
• The normal working hours for this role are 7.5 hours per day, from 7.30am to 3.30pm, Monday to Friday, with 30 minutes for lunch.
• The salary for this post will be in the region of £24-25K FTE on the RGS Support Staff Salary Scale depending on experience and qualifications. This will be pro rata’d to in the region of £19- 20K per annum to reflect that this is a term time role only plus 4 additional days and 1 day for safeguarding training.
• RGS Support Staff salaries are reviewed on 1st August each year.
• The school offers a generous annual leave entitlement of 31 days plus Bank Holidays for all year-round support staff. These holidays are pro rata’d to reflect the term time only working arrangement for this role. Holiday pay is incorporated into the annual salary and is split evenly over 12 months.
• Given the nature of the role and the operational requirements of the school, requests for leave within term time will not be permitted.

WHAT WE OFFER

• During term-time, staff are provided with a free lunch, if on site.
• For non-teaching staff we offer a support staff pension scheme, The Aviva Pension Trust for Independent Schools (APTIS). On receipt of a 6% employee contribution the school makes an employer contribution of 10%. There is also the option of a 3% employee and 5% employer contribution if preferred. This scheme is administered via Salary Exchange (also known as Salary Sacrifice) for those who are eligible. You can opt out of the Salary Exchange arrangement whilst remaining in the pension scheme. Further details of the scheme and salary exchange will be provided on appointment.
• Membership to life assurance scheme through Aviva which pays out 5x annual salary in the event of death in service.
• The employee will become eligible for sick pay under the RGS Support Staff Sick Pay Scheme after a qualifying period. Details of the scheme will be provided on appointment.
• The school offers an optional healthcare plan for all staff which includes optical, dental and physio cover, access to telephone GP consultations and a host of other benefits (terms and conditions apply). Further information will be available to the employee once in post.
• As with all RGS employees, the employee will be encouraged to become involved in the wider life of the RGS community.
• It is the school’s policy to allow all eligible members of staff to educate their children at the school at concessionary rates, subject to their children meeting the academic entry requirements and subject to a place being available.
• Ongoing educational support and development of all staff with the provision of external and internal training courses, and our middle leaders training programme for existing and aspiring managers.
• We offer an interest free travel loan for a corporate Metro travel pass after a qualifying period. Further information will be available upon starting in post.
• Opportunity to see free school productions in the Miller Theatre located in our Performing Arts Centre.
• Free use of a well-equipped gym, fitness suite and swimming pool.
• Access to our onsite confidential counselling service.
• We offer access to the school medical team (1 doctor and 2 nurses) for triage medical advice and free flu vaccinations.
• Invitation to join staff clubs and wellbeing activities during term-time.
• Staff social events throughout the year.
• Supportive and friendly community.
• Opportunity to join in with RGS tradition and become a member of the Stowell, Collingwood, Horsley, or Eldon House.

HOW TO APPLY

Enquiries about this post should be made in the first instance to Tom Keenan (Senior Deputy Head) [email protected].

During school holidays, please also forward any queries to [email protected] or call 0191 281 5711.

Candidates are advised to read the ‘Information for Applicants’ with particular care before applying.

If, having looked through the website (www.rgs.newcastle.sch.uk) and read this job information pack and the Information for Applicants, you think this particular post would suit you, please say so (and why)in:

1. A covering letter and

2. A fully completed RGS application form.

You must complete the application form, even if you want to also attach a CV. Please email all documents to [email protected] the closing date.

Interviews will be held shortly after the closing date. We will hope to make the appointment as soon as possible following interview, offering the post and gaining acceptance.

Reasonable travel expenses will be considered to attend an interview if candidates live outside the local area. This is normally up to a maximum contribution of £100 on provision of receipts. If your expenses will be significantly higher than £100 and an overnight stay is required, please note all expenses will need to be booked and approved in advance. If you plan to claim expenses, please contact the Head’s Secretary, Sandra Ellis [email protected] advance of your interview, who will talk you through the policy and advise on eligibility for reimbursement.

Safeguarding and Safer Recruitment

RGS is committed to the safeguarding of children and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff, volunteers and those working in school to share this commitment. The school applies the Government’s Safer Recruitment procedures to all candidates. More information regarding the checks can be found in the Information for Applicants and ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (September 2022).

Equal Opportunities

We are looking to appoint staff from a wide variety of backgrounds. Not just because it is the right thing to do but because at the RGS we recognise that those different experiences provide fresh perspectives, opportunities to challenge existing beliefs and provide opportunities to act as excellent role models for our diverse student body. We are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse school culture and our staff are at the heart of this. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships. Whilst all applications are considered on merit, we would particularly welcome applications from black and minority ethnic candidates who are currently under-represented in our staff community.

We encourage all candidates to complete an ‘equal opportunities’ form with your application. This will be sent directly to the HR team for monitoring purposes.

CONTACT DETAILS

Royal Grammar School Eskdale Terrace Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4DX

Tel: 0191 281 5711

General enquiries: Tom Keenan (Senior Deputy Head) [email protected] [email protected], [email protected]

www.rgs.newcastle.sch.uk

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Salary: £24,000.00-£25,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Canteen
• Company events
• Company pension
• Discounted or free food
• Enhanced maternity leave
• Gym membership
• On-site gym
• Sick pay

Schedule:

• Day shift
• Monday to Friday
• No weekends

Work Location: In person

Application deadline: 14/08/2023