Bursar – Hannah Ball School at Buckinghamshire Council

Reference number

BUC10060

Contract type

Permanent

Working hours

Part Time

Level of DBS check required

Enhanced with Barred List

Date posted

21 Sep 2023, 11 p.m.

Application deadline

6 Oct 2023

Contact email

[email protected]

Overview

We are looking to expand our office team by recruiting an enthusiastic and well – motivated Bursar to join our warm, vibrant and caring school’s office. You will be working as part of a small and friendly team.

Potential start date: 30th October 2023

Term time only: Yes

Salary Type: Bucks pay

Salary details: Bucks Pay Range 3 (or 4 for an outstanding candidate)

Contract type: Permanent

Hours: Part time

Closing date: 06/10/2023 12:00

About us

Hannah Ball School is a one form entry primary school in the heart of High Wycombe. Our small and friendly school serves a diverse community and offers a broad, balanced and evolving curriculum. We are a reflective and forward thinking school with a hardworking and dedicated team of staff, fantastic children and supportive governing body. We have close links with neighbouring primary schools and we actively encourage shared good practice, with an emphasis on high quality continuing professional development.

We are seeking an enthusiastic and inspirational person to join our warm and welcoming team. This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidate to take that next step in their career and to demonstrate positive impact on outcomes for children. You will be working within a warm, vibrant and caring school at the heart of its community.

If you are an excellent practitioner, keen to transform children’s lives, then we would love to hear from you.

Our children love their school. It represents a safe, happy and stimulating environment for them. Our school ethos is “Together We Inspire, Aspire and Achieve” and it is integral to the way we organise, work and deliver our curriculum.

For more information about the school and our daily life, please visit our website at www.hannahball.bucks.sch.uk

About the role

Responsibilities will include the organisation and management of school finance and accounting, the monitoring of all school budget items and raising and payment of purchase orders and invoices.

Financial Duties:
To plan, prepare, monitor and evaluate the annual school budget in consultation with the Headteacher and Governors, by managing and administering the SIMS and FMS and electronic systems.

Main duties include:
Preparation of the annual school budget to be submitted to the Local Authority

Monthly monitoring of the school budget and reconciliation to the Local Authority finance system (SAP)

Preparation of the Q2 forecast for submission to the Local Authority

Responsibility for the year end process to ensure all deadlines are met in the year end timetable

Raising purchase orders for all necessary material and equipment for the School, and liaising with suppliers

Preparing invoice batches to be sent to the Local Authority to be paid in a timely manner

Administration of the school’s purchasing card within financial guidelines

Ensuring all expenditure and income is correctly coded on a regular basis

Administration of ParentPay relating to payments into the school budget with respect to trips and breakfast club bookings

Administration of school’s letting procedures with regard to the hire of the school including the issue of invoices

Administration of the school’s Imprest account (petty cash)

Preparation of the annual SFVS to be agreed with Governors

Ensure all appropriate insurance contracts are in place for the school (maternity, sickness, travel etc)

Provide regular updates to the Governing Body including benchmarking analysis with similar schools, with occasional attendance at Governor Body meetings (one evening per term)

HR duties:
Preparing relevant documentation for new starters (job adverts, offer letters, contracts, etc)

Processing documents for overtime, sickness, changes to contracts (e-forms)

Regular review of PN41 (monthly salary schedule)

Import of annual pay changes to FMS and SIMS

Other:
To be responsible for administration of the School Fund, ensuring that all requirements of the Charity Commission are met

Manage budget for the rolling programme of maintenance and repairs to the school site

Liaise with contractors for larger projects to ensure best value is obtained for the school

Conduct:
To act in a professional and confidential manner with all school information.

To promote the image of the school in all contact with the local and wider community

To be able to communicate effectively both orally and in writing

To respond in a courteous manner to enquiries from the school community and external visitors as appropriate

To have professional regard for the ethos, policies and practices of the school and maintain standards in your own attendance and punctuality

Actively participate in any appropriate training and performance development when required

Attend and participate in meetings as required

Adhere to the schools code of conduct policy at all times

About you

If you have a passion for finance, are proactive, meticulous and ensure that jobs are done on time and to the highest standard, we would love to hear from you.

The successful candidate will have previous experience of the accounting processes and will be computer literate in IT accounting systems (ideally FMS). Although not essential experience of working within an educational environment would be helpful.

If you are someone who enjoys multi-tasking with each day presenting a new and exciting challenge, then this is the role for you! Working in our vibrant, but small office team, you will be able to prioritise, work under pressure and to deadlines.

You will have good ICT skills and an excellent knowledge of (Excel) spreadsheets. This is a busy and varied position which calls for a person with a mature attitude who has excellent presentation skills, is positive, motivated, flexible and with experience of problem solving. An awareness of financial deadlines and procedures as well as experience of audit requirement is crucial. The need for confidentiality is paramount in this position.

The successful candidate will have:

• Significant experience of working in accountancy or other related disciplines
• Knowledge of accounting and budget control procedures
• An understanding of and ability to implement monitoring and evaluation strategies
• The ability to present complex financial information in a way that is accessible to the non-specialist
• To communicate with and relate well to colleagues, children and adults
• A friendly and welcoming and professional manner
• Well-developed time management skills
• A positive and flexible attitude
• Self-motivated
• Ability to remain calm under pressure
• Excellent communication skills and a good sense of humour

In return we can offer:

• A commitment to you and your professional development
• Friendly, supportive, enthusiastic and hardworking colleagues, staff and governors
• Encouragement to develop new ideas and the opportunity to make a real difference
• An inspiring community of learners

Please see the attached job description and person specification below for more information and its requirements.

Other information

We strongly encourage you to visit the school to see for yourself the potential that the school could offer you. To arrange a visit or to find out more about the role, please contact our school office on the number below. Please send completed application forms to the email address below.

Tel No: 01494 522476

Email: [email protected]

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Hannah Ball School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and expects all staff to share this. Our expectations and standards will be reflected throughout the recruitment process and the successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

All unspent convictions and conditional cautions

All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020).

For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro guidance and the guidance issued by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled ‘Exceptions Order’).

It is an offence to apply for the role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children. All shortlisted applicants will be required to complete self-disclosure form and return prior to interview.