School Business Manager
St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School, Rochester, Kent, ME1 2FA19 days remaining to apply
Job start date
1 January 2027
Closing date
10 November 2026 at 9am
Date listed
22 October 2026
Job details
Job role
- Administration, HR, data and finance
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Working pattern
- Full time: Full Time, 37 hours per week 1 Year Contract (opportunity for some flexible working, up to 0.5 of contract)
Contract type
- Fixed term - 1 Year
Pay scale
- Medway Salary Scale PO1 - Points 27 to 37 (£38,220 to £48,226)
What skills and experience we're looking for
Role Overview
We are seeking an experienced high-calibre School Business Manager (SBM) to provide financial leadership for a highly regarded secondary school in Rochester. You will have operational and strategic responsibility for financial management, human resources, estate management, health and safety, and administrative systems.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide a confidential and professional financial service preparing monthly reports, action plans, and accounts to the Headteacher and Governors.
- Ensure that all financial reports are completed to a high standard for all auditing purposes and for LA/DfE/Gov returns.
- Work with external service provider on monthly payroll routines to ensure payments are accurate.
- Oversee the Purchase Ledger function ensuring all suppliers invoices are paid in a timely manner.
- Manage external lettings, liaising with external companies seeking to utilise our facilities. Ensure sales invoices are sent and paid in a timely manner.
- Scrutinise premises, catering, and ICT budgets to ensure best value practices through robust contract and SLA management.
- Provide strategic oversight on large capital projects and planned maintenance programmes.
- Proactively identify and secure additional income streams, including grant funding bids and encouraging facility lettings by the local community.
- Line-manage the Premises Manager and team to deliver the required maintenance, health and safety, and security of our school buildings, facilities and site.
Person Specification
Essential Skills
- Excellent mathematical/accounting skills with experience as a School Business Manager or Senior Finance Lead ideally within a secondary school or multi-academy trust (MAT) setting.
- Ability to work independently under time pressure, make decisions, and show initiative when problem solving.
- Experience of managing staff.
- Experience of lettings management, risk assessments, etc.
- Knowledge of Health and Safety legislation and requirements.
- Experience of maintaining accurate and up-to-date administration, reports and records.
- Flexibility, resilience, adaptability and commitment to work as part of a team.
- Excellent time management and organisational skills.
Desirable Skills:
- Proficiency with school financial and budgeting software and Management Information Systems, ideally with FMS, Access Education, and SIMS.
- Experience of generating income through letting of facilities.
- Relevant managerial and operational qualifications.
What the school offers its staff
St. John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School has a proud history of educating our local Medway community. Established in 1964, we are the only Catholic secondary school in the local authority. One of seven secondary modern schools in the area, we are a diverse community, proud to educate Catholic students as well as those of other faiths and none. We are also proudly comprehensive: for example, SJF’s sixth form offers a wide range of academic and vocational qualifications. It has a comprehensive intake, ranging from students who are re-taking Level 2 qualifications all the way to those who are enrolled in our Oxbridge programme which helps students to reach the top universities.
Our students often refer to us as their second family, and it is a great place to work as a teacher. Our community of staff is incredibly supportive of each other, and our personalised CPD programme means that everyone’s career development is supported in a way that is specific to them. We are passionate about work-life balance, finishing lessons early on a Wednesday afternoon so that CPD and meetings can largely take place during normal school hours, and we provide counselling services free of charge to those who need them. In addition, our feedback policy asks that staff read student books and then get the class to respond collectively in the next lesson in purple pen, rather than requiring that every set of books be deep marked on a frequent basis.
The school has been on a trajectory of improvement since the appointment of the Headteacher, Dympna Lennon, in September 2016. This was recognised in our ‘Good’ Ofsted in May 2019, with inspectors commenting that ‘standards across the school have improved since the last inspection’ and ‘Teaching, learning and assessment are strong across subjects.’ We were proud to be recognised as an ‘Outstanding’ Catholic school in our 2021 Diocesan Inspection. While the pandemic had a devastating impact on many of the families, which did have an impact on our academic results, we have taken robust action to address this and improve our offer for our Medway community.
Having been the recipient of a multimillion-pound grant from the Department for Education, we moved into world-class, purpose-built facilities in Spring 2023. Situated at the top of City Way looking down across Rochester and the River Medway, the school is equipped with enviable sporting and academic facilities, including a large English department on the same floor as our beautiful library, which is positioned right at the heart of the school.
SJF undoubtedly has a proud history, but we are even more excited about the future. We hope that you’ll want to be part of it.
Further information about the job
Commitment to safeguarding
Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff, volunteers and trustees to share this commitment.
Our recruitment process follows the keeping children safe in education guidance.
Offers of employment may be subject to the following checks (where relevant):
childcare disqualification
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
medical
online and social media
prohibition from teaching
right to work
satisfactory references
suitability to work with children
You must tell us about any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.
Applying for the job
This job requires you to download an application form, you will be able to upload the application once complete.
CVs will not be accepted for this application.
Additional documents
If you need these documents in an accessible format, please contact the school.
About St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School
- Organisation type
- Local authority maintained school, Roman Catholic, ages 11 to 18
- Education phase
- Secondary school
- Size
- 1084 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 18
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- Email address
- l.parducci@stjohnfisher.school
St. John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School is a non-selective coeducational secondary school for students age 11-18. A single site school with free parking, we moved to world-class brand-new buildings in the spring of 2023. Our mission statement is that ‘St. John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School inspires students, spiritually and educationally forming them through Faith so that they can achieve their aspirations and contribute to their community’. As a Catholic school, we are passionate about the formation of the whole student, making sure that we develop students into good people as well as ensure they get good results.
School location
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