JOBTITLE: School Administrator and Operations Head

REPORTSTO: School Proprietress
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
Lyron currently has over 500 children grouped into JHS, Upper Primary, Lower Primary and Pre-School. The school’s Leadership Team consists of the School Proprietress, who holds the senior-most position in Lyron. Reporting to the Proprietress is the School Administrator, the Headteacher (supported by 4 department Heads) and the School Accountant. The school has both full and part-time teachers currently working at the school. There are also support staff who aid in the overall administration and operations of the school. The mandate of the school’s management is to ensure that these staff are coordinated and supervised to meet the expectations of the school’s key stakeholders; hence the role of the administrator is vital.

JOB PURPOSE
We are looking for a dependable and friendly School Administrator to join our educational institution. The School Administrator and Operations Head will be expected to provide high quality, efficient, and effective administration support to oversee a wide range of operational duties aimed at delivering efficient and seamless services for all the stakeholders of the School. Responsibilities of the administrator include handling all assigned tasks, addressing inquiries and queries, grasping the school’s policies, aiding with the recruitment of new staff members, and interacting with parents, teachers, and students as needed. You should be able to take leadership of your department and supervise it as required. To be a great school administrator, you must be detail-oriented while keeping an eye on the broader picture. Commendable candidates are able to handle various duties while remaining calm under pressure.

MAIN ACTIVITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Management of Non-teaching Staff and Daily Operations

• Play a full part in the wider administration team, maintaining knowledge of the work done by the team and assisting, arranging, or providing cover where necessary.
• Coordinate the arrangement and delivery of school activities for events such as applicants visit days, monitor and supervise how reports are conducted on attendance at these events. This includes ensuring that administrative support is provided for school projects and well as planning and overseeing operations on opening and closing days of the school
• Respond to requests for information and data. Collate this data, carry out basic analysis, and understand the information accessible through school record systems.
• Gather, maintain, update and perform analytics on the school’s operational data and use it as a guide to inform management decision making
• Coordinate with the senior management team to maintain general records relating to staff and school operations
• Provide administrative support services to support the school’s leadership team, academics and other colleagues in the overall operation of the School.
• Undertake key aspects of budgetary administration, including monitoring income and expenditure and assisting with budget preparation and end of year reporting.
• Provide support for internal meetings, making meeting arrangements, producing and
  distributing agendas, papers and minutes

Initiative, problem-solving and decision making

• Resolve day-to-day operational problems where possible, and refer those that cannot be resolved to the right departments in a timely manner.
• Continuously provide suggestions on how administrative processes might be improved to make the school’s operations more effective and efficient.
• Oversee the maintenance of inventories and supplies of equipment and consumables (such as office stationery) for the school.
•  Coordinate and supervise arrangements for school transportation, facilities and admission for pupils.
• Provide support for internal meetings, make meeting arrangements, producing and distribute agendas, papers and minutes.
• Liaise with Proprietress and senior management team to administer the recruitment process for school staff and contractors.

Grounds and buildings

• Have overall supervision of major and minor projects at the school.
• Direct and oversee the in-year maintenance activity for buildings and facilities.
• Direct and oversee the grounds and maintenance operations.

Internal Communication

• Liaise with the School Accountant and leadership team to communicate information to colleagues, including providing clear and accurate explanations of financial and HR processes.
• Liaise with the Headmistress to provide advice and support to teaching staff, visiting teachers, non-teaching staff and all who may be unfamiliar with the school’s procedures.

Teamwork, Collaborative Working and Stakeholder management

• The school administrator should have a keen customer focus behaviour and work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure that a responsive and effective administration service is provided across the school for all stakeholders.
• This may include a degree of flexibility to work across different areas of the school, provide assistance for a variety of workstreams, support colleagues at the time of peak demand, or help cover holidays and other absences to ensure school operations are not disrupted.
• Part of this role is to manage and respond to stakeholders on behalf of the schools. The School Administrator is to be the intermediary between the school and all key stakeholders of the school (e.g., parents)

Work environment

• Be aware of the risks in the work environment and potential impact on your own work and that of others, and work with the leadership team to ensure these are communicated to all stakeholders.

Leadership and Supervisory Role

• Serve as the supervisor for all non-teaching staff and supervise their operations to support the school’s overall operations
•  Lead the administrative and support team to play the supportive role required of them for the school to function effectively.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

•  Minimum Bachelor’s/Master’s degree and a professional/technical qualification around expertise.
•  A high level of literacy and numeracy education to a first-degree level or equivalent is desirable.
• Previous experience as a school administrator will be preferred.
• An individual aged 35 and above will be preferred.
• Able to have a reference from a previous employer who can speak on your character and work ethic (a reference of character will be expected to be presented before the interview)
• The preferred candidate should live in Tema, Spintex-Baatsona and its environs.
• Excellent IT skills, including advanced knowledge of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software packages, preferably Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Experience in administration processes relating to:
•  Monitoring and implementing budgets
• Recruiting staff
•  Organising school support activities, supporting school projects and
• verseeing the organisation of school events
•  Experience in providing high-quality customer service and/or stakeholder management in a complex environment.
• Experience working successfully as part of a leadership/management team
•  Able to demonstrate an:
• Ability to communicate clearly and in an appropriate language with colleagues both orally and in writing.
•  Ability to understand and explain complex procedures to colleagues and direct reports.
• Ability to manage own time and workload.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to lead, mentor and guide team members as necessary.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
The School administrator may be required to work outside regular office hours to support the school operations and events effectively. This will require flexibility, especially at times of peak activity.