School Office Manager
Oakfield Lodge School, Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 4PP29 days remaining to apply
Job start date
1 September 2026
Closing date
19 June 2026 at 9am
Date listed
21 May 2026
Job details
Job role
- Administration, HR, data and finance
Visa sponsorship
- Visas cannot be sponsored
Working pattern
- Full time
Contract type
- Fixed term
Full-time equivalent salary
- £33,699.00 - £38,220.00 Annually (FTE)
School Office Manager job summary
About Us
Oakfield Lodge School is a 60-place secondary pupil referral unit providing short stay education for children aged 11-16 years. The school caters for students who are outside of mainstream education as a result of a permanent exclusion. Students are referred by the local authority education access officer from Cheshire East. We are a part of Manor Hall Academy Trust, which is an expanding Multi-Academy Trust, uniquely founded by a collaboration of special schools, united by a shared ethos, values, and collective aspirations. Guided by our commitment that Everyone Belongs, Learns and Grows, it truly is a special place to work. At the heart of our approach is mutual respect, where the exchange of best practice, expertise, support, and challenge thrives. We maintain high expectations across all aspects of our work, ensuring continuous growth and improvement.
Why Join Us?
Joining Oakfield Lodge offers you the opportunity to be part of a forward-thinking and inclusive environment. Our collaborative and supportive culture, combined with a commitment to professional development, creates excellent opportunities for growth, learning, and making a meaningful contribution to the success of our school community.
About the Opportunity
We are seeking a highly organised, proactive, and experienced School Office Manager to play a pivotal role in the smooth and effective running of our school. This is a key leadership position within the support staff team, offering the opportunity to make a real impact across all non-teaching functions, including administration, finance, HR, compliance, and estates management.
As School Office Manager, you will lead and develop a dedicated team of support staff, ensuring high-quality service delivery across the school. You will work closely with senior leaders and the governing body, providing essential administrative, organisational, and strategic support. Your role will be instrumental in shaping and improving systems, processes, and policies to enhance efficiency and compliance.
This varied and rewarding position also includes responsibility for overseeing financial operations, managing budgets, ensuring HR compliance (including safeguarding and safer recruitment requirements), and maintaining key records such as the Single Central Record. You will play a central role in ensuring the school operates in line with statutory requirements while continuously seeking opportunities to improve and innovate.
Alongside your operational responsibilities, you will contribute to the wider life and ethos of the school by supporting staff, engaging with stakeholders, and promoting a culture of collaboration, professionalism, and continuous improvement. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment and is passionate about supporting education through strong organisational leadership.
We are looking for someone who is:
Organised, methodical and attentive to detail
Experienced in finance and administrative processes
Confident with ICT systems
Proactive and able to take responsibility
Skilled in managing confidential information
A supportive team member
Customer‑focused, with a friendly, professional and respectful approach when dealing with staff, pupils, families and external stakeholders
Adaptable and open to change
An effective communicator, able to provide clear information, guidance and support to others
Committed to high standards, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and consistent quality across all administrative, finance and HR tasks
Motivated to work in a school environment
We can offer:
25 days annual leave plus 2 additional Trust Discretionary days, plus bank holidays (pro-rata), increasing with service
Excellent working environment
Generous local government pension scheme
Tech & Cycle to Work Schemes
Health and wellbeing support including ‘Think Well’, fast track counselling service & Physiotherapy
Eye-sight testing
Retail discounts in supermarkets, high street shops, restaurants and days out
How to Apply
Please apply via My New Term. We will acknowledge receipt of your application and notify you if you are shortlisted for an interview. We are reviewing applications on a rolling basis and actively interviewing, so we reserve the right to close the vacancy once we find the right candidate.
For an informal discussion about the role please contact Emma Thompson on head@oakfield.mhat.org.uk, or to arrange a visit to Oakfield Lodge please contact us on 01270 918337.
Guaranteed Interview Scheme
As a ‘Disability Confident’ employer, we are committed to ensuring disabled candidates are included in our recruitment process. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria of the role, we will invite you to interview. Please let us know if you are eligible for this scheme at the application stage.
Don’t meet every single requirement?
At Manor Hall Trust, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every single requirement in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be the perfect candidate for this or another role within our organisation.
If you are successful after shortlisting, you will be provided with the full details of the recruitment and selection process, together will the timeline.
We look forward to receiving your application!
Manor Hall Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff to share this commitment. Child safety recruitment procedures operate, and appointment is subject to satisfactory references, enhanced DBS, qualifications check and all other relevant employment checks. Please also note that if you are shortlisted for the role, we may conduct an online search as part of our due diligence on shortlisted candidates. This may help to identify any incidents or issues that have happened, and are publicly available online, which may indicate that you are unsuitable to work with children, and that we may want to explore with you at interview. You will find our policies (including Safeguarding, Safer Recruitment and Disclosure of a Criminal Conviction) here - Policies - Oakfield Lodge School
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 school accepts applications through their own website, where you may also find more information about this job.
CVs will not be accepted for this application.
View advert on external website (opens in new tab)About Oakfield Lodge School
- School type
- Academies, Does not apply, ages 11 to 16
- School size
- 37 pupils enrolled
- Age range
- 11 to 16
- Ofsted report
- View Ofsted report
- School website
- Oakfield Lodge School website
School location
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