11+ Admissions Officer
- Job title: 11+ Admissions Officer
- Job Type: Full time, Permanent
- Salary: £30,000 - £35,000 depending on skills and experience.
- Department: Admissions
- Reporting to: Head of Admissions
- Location: Highgate, North London, Bishopswood Road site/Hybrid working
- Start: As soon as possible
- Closing Date: 30 October 2023 at 9:00 am
Are you an experienced administrator, with excellent communication and customer service skills?
We’re looking for someone to lead the Admissions processes for our Senior School, working closely with families of 11+ applicants, guiding them from initial enquiry through to the induction of new pupils. You’ll ensure that families have a positive experience of the School, whether their applications are successful or not, and have responsibility for overseeing the Senior School Bursary programme.
Working closely with colleagues in the Admissions and Marketing teams, you’ll be the main point of contact for parents applying for a senior school place. Calm and organised, you will be a people-person with a flexible, pro-active approach, a keen eye for detail and confident managing some financial information as well as liaising with an external service provider.
The Department
The busy and dynamic Admissions team are responsible for leading and co-ordinating the admission of pupils to Highgate’s over-subscribed Pre-Prep, Junior and Senior Schools, work which is crucial for the ongoing success of the school. We also lead the bursaries process which sees 90 pupils gaining free or discounted places at the school.
Led by the Head of Admissions, the team consists of six members of staff who each have clear responsibilities, yet work collaboratively as a team. With four formal entry points, the team’s primary focus is on relationships with prospective parents and pupils through designing and running a comprehensive admissions and induction process. We work closely with the Marketing and Communications team as well as the leadership teams across all three schools.
Planning, strategy and marketing
- Set, communicate and maintain timelines and priorities for your entry point.
- Assist the Head of Admissions in formulating our overall strategy for Admissions, including reflecting on the efficacy of existing systems, customer service and proposing improvements.
- Maximise the communication and marketing potential of the application database, Hubspot.
Events and admissions process
- Working closely with the Senior School Academic team to organise the academic assessments including entry tests and interviews.
- Monitor applications as they arrive, check their accuracy and monitor payments.
- Liaise with staff to ensure new pupil inductions are fully arranged and appropriate, timely correspondence shared with parents, and new joiner information is completed.
Building relationships
- Correspond with prospective parents via email and telephone, building positive relationships.
- Manage registrations for open events via website and telephone and support the event with quality communications beforehand and afterwards.
- Assist in the organisation of Open Mornings, Tours and the Open Day (virtual or in person) alongside the Admissions Officer for Events.
- Provide accurate, timely and consistent feedback to parents after assessments. Ensure that the Head of Admissions is asked for support, if needed, and/or updated with any difficult conversations or situations arising within your entry point.
Systems and Regulatory
- Understand Safeguarding and GDPR requirements, including the data retention policy and work to follow regulations at all times.
- Use systems such as Hubspot, My School Portal, SIMS and others
- Criteria
- How will these be tested or verified?
- Qualifications and Experience
Essential
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GCSE in Maths and English or equivalent
- Experience of a customer/public-facing role.
- Demonstrable administrative and/or project management skill
Desirable
-
Education to graduate level or equivalent
- Understanding of the education sector and independent schools.
- Reviewing and reporting on an activity or a project.
- Experience of handling financial or other numerical data.
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- Ability and Skills
Essential
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Excellent people and interpersonal skills.
- Empathetic to people who may be in difficult personal situations and comfortable delivering feedback.
- Highly computer literate.
- Confident handling numerical data.
- A thorough proof-reader with excellent attention to detail.
- Ability to work with senior members of staff with the ability to show discretion at all times.
- A team-player yet comfortable to work unsupervised and be pro-active.
- Manage a diverse workload within tight deadlines.
Desirable
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Experience of Hubspot or other databases.
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Able to think creatively about promoting the School and collaborate with colleagues to do so.
- Personal Attribute
Essential
- Whole-hearted support for the charitable objectives of Highgate School.
- A commitment to equality, diversity and anti-sexism.
- The credibility and professionality of manner to represent Highgate.
- A commitment to the highest standards of confidentiality.
- Diplomatic and tactful, but also politely persistent.
- A good sense of humour.
- Flexibility and adaptability.
- A positive ‘can-do’ attitude; self-motivated.
- Common sense and a drive to improve processes and systems.
- Willing to learn new skills and to take on board constructive advice.
Desirable
- The awareness to adapt quickly to one’s manner and style to suit a situation.
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An understanding of the questions, concerns and priorities that families considering new schools may have.
Benefits
Location | Highgate Village, adjacent to Hampstead Heath, with quaint shops and easy connections across London.
Pension | AVIVA workplace pension scheme offered – 21% employer contribution, with the ability to flex up to 11% of this as additional non-pensionable salary, employees contribute a minimum of 5%.
Personal development | Comprehensive induction support for new staff. Focus on continued professional development for all employees.
Leisure facilities | Free access, at stipulated times, to our sports facilities, including a fitness suite and swimming pool (recently refurbished).
Holidays | Generous holiday allowance of 33 days (including bank holidays) for full-time staff. Most holidays will be taken during school holiday periods.
Lunch | A complimentary lunch including hot meals, sandwiches, salads, fresh fruit and dessert.
Help with sustainable travel | Access to the Cycle to Work Scheme and a Season Ticket Loan scheme for public transport.
Family-friendly policies | Highgate appreciates that employees sometimes have family commitments so we try to be as supportive as possible, for example with enhanced maternity pay (8 weeks’ full pay, then 10 weeks’ half pay) and paid dependant leave.
Working at Highgate
A culture of community, kindness and belonging
Highgate is a caring, open-minded community, where we promote kindness, empathy and friendship. Everyone who works and studies with us deserves to feel they are part of a welcoming environment that enables them to be themselves and to thrive as individuals.
Our community extends beyond the school, through partnerships, charity work and our commitment to equality, inclusion and sustainability. All members of our school community are encouraged to look outwards and play an active role.
In a recent ISI inspection (Dec 2021), it was noted that “Pupils show exceptional respect for, and appreciate diversity within the school and wider community, and their own and other cultures, demonstrating sensitivity and tolerance to those from different backgrounds and traditions.”
Staff wellbeing
Highgate is committed to staff wellbeing, which we promote by encouraging a strong work-life balance; trying our best to support flexible working requests; providing a nutritious complimentary lunch in the dining hall; and offering access to sporting facilities including our recently renovated swimming pool.
The Staff Wellbeing Committee, with representatives across the School, meets regularly to drive forward initiatives, and a selection of staff have been trained as Mental-Health First Aiders.
We encourage an open culture throughout our school, with regular staff surveys, action committees and opportunities to feedback. We strive for continual learning and improvement, and staff training and development is paramount. There are opportunities to participate in the wider life of our school, such as taking part in trips or societies and getting involved in partnership projects.
More details about working at Highgate can be found here:
Charitable work and sustainability
As an independent school, we want to use our position as a charity effectively: to make high-quality education accessible to as many children as possible – through our bursary programme at Highgate and through our work with local state schools. We have partnerships with over 60 state schools across 7 London boroughs, and we are the principal educational sponsor for London Academy of Excellence, Tottenham – an academically-selective state sixth form in a community where such opportunities are lacking.
Alongside this, our staff and pupils undertake charitable activities throughout the year. These range from staff giving up their time to neighbourhood schools and charitable organisations, focused fundraising campaigns, to pupils undertaking community work in the local area or further afield.
As a school, we have a central role to play in educating our pupils, staff and parents about the importance of environmental sustainability. We are taking positive action to adapt our operational performance to tackle the negative effects of climate change. We encourage all our staff to reflect upon their personal and professional practices, to support our environmental agenda and to make positive changes wherever possible.
Application procedure
- Closing Date: 30th October 2023
- Timing of interviews: w/c 30th October, 2023
Contact: Louise Eaden, Head of Admissions is happy to answer any questions about this post.
Early Application: Applications will be considered ‘as and when’ received and we may close the vacancy if we appoint before the closing date.
Inclusion
We know that more diverse teams are stronger teams, and that the more inclusive we are, the more our staff and pupils will feel a sense of belonging and will thrive. To enable us to make reasonable adjustments, please let us know of any disabilities (including neuro-divergence) when you submit your application.
Safeguarding
As this role will have regular unsupervised contact with children you must, if appointed, comply with Highgate’s Safeguarding Policy and Staff Code of Conduct. If in the course of carrying out the duties of the post the post holder becomes aware of any actual or potential risks to the safety and welfare of our pupils, these concerns must be reported immediately in accordance with the Safeguarding Policy. If whilst in the post, Highgate becomes aware of any safeguarding concerns to staff, pupils or the community; these will need to be followed up in line with the safeguarding policy and code of conduct which is underpinned by KCSIE and other legislation. These concerns may need to be shared with other agencies. A copy of these policies will accompany all offers of employment. Training will also be provided to all staff to support Safeguarding practice.
Please read before you apply
Highgate is committed to the safeguarding and welfare of children and applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to this post, including checks with past employers, the Disclosure and Barring Service and overseas police check if necessary. Candidates from overseas must provide information about their past conduct, for example, by providing documents issued by overseas teaching authorities. DBS Privacy Policy
Please note that this role is ‘exempt’ from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore, you are required to declare any convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings that are not ‘protected’ (i.e. filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013). Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide details of all unspent convictions and those that would not be filtered, prior to the date of the interview. DBS Code of Practice
In accordance with the latest guidance from KCSIE, we shall be conducting online searches on any candidates who are shortlisted.