Groundsperson Stocksfield, England
Job description
Grounds Person
Newton, Northumberland
Full time, Permanent
After 21 years, our current Groundsman is moving on to new adventures. We therefore have a fantastic opportunity for a highly motivated, suitably experienced person to oversee our 50 acre site in the beautiful Northumbrian Countryside. The post provides considerable scope for someone with imagination and drive to shape the future of the site, and to develop his or her own career.
About Mowden Hall School
Mowden Hall is an independent co-educational boarding and day school of 200 children from age 3 – 13 situated in the Northumberland countryside, fifteen miles west of Newcastle. The Pre-Prep and Nursery are based on the same site and share facilities with the Prep School. The Prep School has a strong boarding ethos, flexi boarding is increasingly popular, and the majority of the children board in some capacity by Year 5.
Mowden Hall is set in 50 acres of stunning grounds with fabulous views over the Tyne Valley, but is just 15 miles west of Newcastle. The School provides an extremely broad, holistic education with the ethos that education does not start and stop at the classroom door. Whilst we strive for excellence in our academic provision, there is also considerable emphasis on developing the children’s skills and interests, and hence great importance is also attached to the extra-curricular programme. Our grounds are an essential part of pupils' whole development.
To Apply, please contact the School for an application form. Application deadline is Thursday 9th March 2023, at 4.00pm. Interviews will take place on Wednesday 15th March 2023.
No agencies, thank you.
Mowden Hall School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Any offer of employment would be subject to: Social media checks; references satisfactory to the Prep Schools Trust; enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Check; proof of right to live/work in the UK, and evidence of stated qualifications.
Mowden Hall believes in diversity and inclusion, and would like to create a workforce as diverse as our pupils. We would welcome applications from those in ethnic minority groups who are currently underrepresented.
It is an offence to apply for this role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children. To read our Safeguarding Policy click HERE. To ready our Safer Recruitment Policy click HERE
The Grounds Person is responsible for maintaining School grounds and various outdoor sport facilities including cricket, rugby, football, netball, and hockey pitches and courts within the School’s 50 acre estate.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
● Work closely with our busy Games Department to ensure you have a good understanding of Games’ requirements
● Preparing and maintaining the sports facilities including grass pitches, artificial surfaces and hard courts to a high standard
● Work closely with the Operations Manager to ensure the grounds are suitable for external lets
● All aspects of grass pitch maintenance and preparation including but not limited to mowing, pitch marking, sand spreading, wicket preparation, rolling
● Lead on the maintenance and preparation of cricket wickets, cricket nets, rugby pitches and athletics’ practice areas, football pitch and training areas and carrying out annual renovations to rugby pitches, cricket squares, football pitches and playing surfaces
● Creating, marking out and setting up of playing surfaces
● Maintaining hedges, fences, gates, car parks, paths and roads
● Maintain woodland areas
● Maintain the outdoor learning classroom and Forest School area.
● Daily maintenance of a range of grounds machinery
● Maintain a list of grounds equipment and plant and manage their annual inspection, maintenance and repair in accordance with routine operating requirements
● Drive vehicles and equipment as required for grounds maintenance operations including tractors and other associated vehicles with trailers
● Monitor the use of consumable items and spares and make arrangements for their replenishment
● Ensure the safe use, storage, calibration and disposal of pesticides and other similar substances in line with COSHH regulations
● Ensure a clean, tidy and litter-free appearance throughout the grounds● Be responsible for all aspects of Health and Safety for your work, including creating and updating risk assessments
● Assisting with grounds contractors on site, including Health and Safety and Safeguarding
● To respond to emergencies and assist other departments
● Join the Duty Out of Hours rota - emergency call out for holiday/weekends and evenings
● Prepare, in conjunction with the Operations Manager, the annual grounds budget
● Establish and maintain effective working relationships with managers, colleagues and end users
● Painting and maintaining all posts, nets, corner flags etc
● Make decisions about the need for early morning salting, gritting and snow clearing by close of business on the previous afternoon and communicate the decision to other team members
● Participate in a salting, gritting and snow clearing, which will require an earlier start than normal. This requires a start time of 6.30am.
● To be aware of Health and Safety requirements noting that all duties must be carried out to comply with current Health & Safety at Work legislation
● To ensure all equipment, machinery and buildings are secure
● To assist with School Events; set up and take down as required
● To identify areas of improvement within the grounds
● Drive the minibus and other School vehicles as required
● To be fully aware of and implement the School’s policy on Health and Safety and Safeguarding
● To attend departmental staff meetings and other staff meetings as required
● To undertake courses as necessary for professional development
● Carry out duties and responsibilities in line with the current practice at Mowden Hall as laid out in the Staff Policies and Procedures
● To undertake such other duties consistent with the nature and responsibility of the post as may reasonably be assigned by the Head or Operations Manager.
Hours of Work:
A degree of flexibility is required depending on the season, typically 7:00am to 2:00pm on Mondays, 8:00am to 4:00pm Tuesday to Friday and up to 9 Saturdays 8:00am -1:30pm. The average working week is 37.5 hours.
Contract Type: Permanent
Salary and Benefits:
Circa £24,000pa dependant on experience
Contributory pension scheme
30 minute paid lunch break
Free lunch, hot drinks and snacks during term time
All appropriate uniform and workwear and PPE
Employee Benefits - EAP, eye care vouchers, employee savings platform
Grounds Person
Newton, Northumberland
Full time, Permanent
Medical Fitness: Any offer of employment will be conditional upon the appointee’s fitness to carry out the role. New employees will be asked, following an offer of employment, to complete a questionnaire regarding medical fitness.
Recruitment Checks: Mowden Hall requires all new employees to complete an Enhanced level criminal background check through the Disclosure and Barring Service. It is a condition of employment that the employee should not have been convicted of a criminal offence against children, nor have been dismissed from or resigned from a previous employer for misconduct of a similar nature. Having a criminal record is not necessarily a bar to employment; it will depend on the nature, circumstances and background of the offence.
All appointments are made in accordance with our Equality policy and applicants should let us know of any special needs they may have so that adjustments can be made if required.
The school is a no smoking and no vaping site and employees are not permitted to smoke or vape anywhere within the School grounds
It is an offence to apply for this role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Salary: £23,000.00-£25,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Discounted or free food
- On-site parking
Schedule:
- Day shift
Application question(s):
- Do you have the Right to Work in the UK?
- Do you have a qualification in a grounds related discipline, or experience of preparing and maintaining either Cricket, Rugby or Football Pitches?
- Do you have experience of using petrol mowers, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, strimmers and ride-on mowers, or driving tractors?
Work Location: One location
Application deadline: 09/03/2023
Expected start date: 03/04/2023
