THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL BUSINESS MANAGER Information to Help When You’re Starting Out in Your Career
structure, where form tutors (who are of course also teaching staff and have a place within the academic structure) will report to a year head or a Pastoral Manager and then often to a Head of School or a pastoral deputy. Finally, there is the support staff structure, where all staff will normally report to the Business Manager / Bursar, but may well work closely with, and take direction from, members of teaching staff in their day-to- day work. To complicate things even further, staff
who have a senior role in one structure (e.g. Head of Department) may well have one lower down the structure in another (e.g. Form Tutor), and members of the Senior Leadership Team will often act as classroom teachers in their own subject areas.
It is quite common, therefore, for
one member of staff to report to another in one structure, and to manage them in a second. Whilst this is incredibly confusing, if not impossible, to capture on paper (I admit that I never produced the chart for the governor), it seems to work well in practice as long as everyone understands it.
that central government priorities will shape future education, and the way that your school operates. To keep abreast of developments, and to understand the thinking and motivation behind initiatives, you could:-
• Read newspapers, especially the TES • Monitor websites, including the DfE, the National and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (see end for links). • Explore the Ofsted website (www.
ofsted.gov.uk) to get a feel for stand- ards and the key elements covered in inspections. • Keep up to date with government documents by subscribing to a docu- ment summary service such as that offered by the University of Bristol -
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/ expertiseandresources/dss/
If you are new to schools,
it is absolutely vital that you sit down with the headteacher, or another member of the leadership team, and go through who is responsible for what, and how the formal and informal chains of command function. I can almost guarantee that you will need more than one piece of paper for your notes / diagrams, but the information is essential for understanding how the school works.
3. ENGAGE WITH CORE BUSINESS
Gain Understanding The more you understand a business and its operations, the easier it is to manage the finances – and the more interesting, relevant and fulfilling your job will be.
Keep Up To Date on National Context: Under the last government, many educational initiatives and developments came from central government, and were part of a broader national agenda of social support and inclusion. The precise role of the new coalition government is not yet fully known, but there is no doubt
Understand Core Business: Unless you are very young, it is likely that classroom education has changed significantly since you were at school: changes in the curric- ulum together with the growth of ICT and the focus on independent and personal- ised learning has led to a very different learning environment from even ten years ago. Take some time to sit down with the person responsible for the curriculum in your school to get a feel for the kind of subjects that are taught.
In addition,
spend some time with subject leaders and pastoral staff to get a feel for their roles and responsibilities. If you can find the time, I would also recommend that you observe some lessons – not only to keep up-to-date on teaching and learning methods, but also so you can get a first hand understanding of the issues faced by teachers in the classroom.
Become Familiar with the SEF Every school is required to produce a Self-Evaluation Form (SEF) which makes evidence-based judgements about key areas of provision based on Ofsted cri- teria. This form is updated annually and submitted online to Ofsted, and is used by inspectors to gain an understanding of your school before an inspection. Part of the inspection process will also focus on testing the accuracy of the judge- ments made in the SEF, and thus the
school’s ability to evaluate itself. Ask to see the current SEF, and discuss with your headteacher how you can contribute to the next review. Even offering simply to co-ordinate the review and upload the various sections will inevitably aid your understanding.
Understand the SIP: Every school is also required to have a School Improvement Plan (SIP), the key priorities of which should flow from the issues identified in the SEF.
It is important to understand this
plan not only as part of the leadership of the school, but also because the priorities identified need to be costed and funded within the annual spending plan. If possi- ble, I would always recommend allocating a cost centre and budget to each priority of the plan, as this will ensure that there are funds available to implement key strategic objectives.
Get Involved: Senior leadership in most schools is extremely hands-on, and this can come as a surprise to anyone who is new to the sector. The vast major- ity of leadership team members have a teaching timetable, and even in large secondaries it is quite normal to see the headteacher supervising the lunch queue, taking assembly or standing at the school gate every morning. Whilst it is easy to question whether this kind of thing is the best use of the most expensive staff in the school, it needs to be remembered that heads, deputies and other senior staff are not only leaders of staff, but of students as well, and visibility and presence are thus highly valued.
If you
are interested in increasing you currency as a leader, therefore – and in learning more about the operations of the school - there is a lot to be gained from volun- teering for duties and/or finding other opportunities to be visible and interact with young people around the site.
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References for this article are avail- able on
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School Management Today • 51
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
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