School Business Manager

School Business Manager

Location: Redhill, Surrey

Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent

Hours: Full-time, 40 hours per week

Salary: Up to £50,000 dependant on experience

Closing Date: 12noon 3^rd December 2024

The Aurora Group

The Aurora Group is an innovative provider of education and care for children, young people and adults with special educational needs and disabilities. As part of our growth strategy, we’re pleased to be opening a brand new school in Autumn 2025 in Caterham with a proposed capacity of 80-100 students.

This school will be provide ‘Every opportunity to achieve’ through a specialist learning environment for autistic young people who may also have ADHD and other associated social and communication difficulties. The pupils will be aged 11-19. The school will include a full therapy team to ensure we can offer the best support to our students. Pupils form the existing Aurora site at Caterham Education Centre will have the opportunity to transfer to Chaldon for the 25/26 academic year.

Located in a rural residential area, the site has had an extensive refurbishment and refit in line with the needs of our pupils.

We are looking for a School Business Manager to join us as early as possible in the new year to work with the Head of School and Principal in the creation, opening and running of this new school. The SBM will be part of the Senior Leadership Team with the responsibility of ensuring the smooth, efficient and economical running of each of the support departments (including Finance, Administration, HR, Facilities and Site Maintenance, Health and Safety, Housekeeping and Catering) to keep our school is safe, compliant, financially sound and delivering great outcomes for our young people within our budget.

The Role 

There is an expectation of the post holder to act with a high degree of autonomy including responsibility and accountability for managing delegated budgets and resources. 

The role also involves creating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating development plans aimed at bringing about continual improvement in these areas.

Please note that duties will vary and you will be expected to contribute to the overall aims of the team when required. Please see the link below for our full job description:

Job Description - School Business Manager

Experience: 

Successful candidates are likely to demonstrate:  

• Knowledge and understanding of relevant regulations and standards for education
• Knowledge of current inspection frameworks used by regulatory and statutory bodies.
• Safeguarding and legislative procedures when working with children and young people
• Management and knowledge of EBITDA, financial systems, processes and budget preparation.
• Excellent communication skills with a range of internal and external people, verbally and in writing
• Knowledge and experience of recruitment, human resources and employee relations
• Ability to form and promote positive relationships with and between young people, employees, parents and representatives of outside agencies
• Ability to define high, appropriate and attainable standards, and achieve them
• Effective team leadership and management
• Ability to assess situations accurately, resolve problems effectively and take decisions 
• Previous School Business Manager experience preferred
• A keen willingness to learn and an enthusiasm to be involved in all aspects of school life.
• A supportive, approachable, flexible and solution focused mindset.
• Previous experience of working in a similar setting is advantageous but not a requirement. You must though be dedicated to understanding and learning about Autism and a range of special education needs.

Be part of our successful team and also benefit from a generous package that includes:

• Life assurance
• Enhanced Pension Scheme
• Perkbox - offering high street discounts
• Employee assistance programme
• Car lease scheme
• Fully funded training and qualifications
• Bike to work scheme
• Free membership to our Health cash back plan - Claim back money on services such as dental, optical, physio and many more.

How to Apply: 

Please complete an online application form in full, remembering to include all employment and education details.  If you need any assistance or would like any more information, please contact Liz in the Aurora Group Recruitment Team at liz.hudson@the-aurora-group.com

Successful applicants will be subject to pre-employment safeguarding checks including an enhanced disclosure and barring service (DBS) check.

The post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Aurora Group is therefore permitted to ask job applicants to declare all convictions and cautions (including those which are "spent" unless they are "protected" under the DBS filtering rules) in order to assess their suitability to work with children.

The Aurora Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children and young adults in our care and is a disability confident and equal opportunities employer.

This advert could be taken down at any point in time without prior notice if the position is filled. 

Please note that candidates that are shortlisted might be subject to an online search.